County Files to Dismiss Parks Miller Complaint

The attorney representing Centre County as well as current and former officials filed a motion this week to have a federal judge dismiss District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller’s latest amended complaint in her civil suit against the county.

Attorney Mary Lou Maierhofer filed the motion to dismiss in U.S. Middle District Court, writing that Parks Miller did not follow the instructions of the court as to how she could file an amended complaint.

Judge Matthew Brann last month dismissed most of the claims brought by Parks Miller against the county, Judge Pamela Ruest, four defense attorneys, a former paralegal in the DA’s office, county commissioners, former County Administrator Tim Boyde and former County Solicitor Louis Glantz.

Brann did, however, grant Parks Miller an opportunity to amend her complaint on a Fourth Amendment search and seizure claim. Brann said she could amend her claim to bring the search and seizure complaint against Boyde, Glantz, current County Commissioner Steve Dershem and former Commissioner Chris Exarchos as individuals, rather than in their official capacities. Brann also stipulated that to bring the complaint against the county, she would have to allege a policy of custom of illegal searches and seizures.

‘The latest pleading contains voluminous, irrelevant, immaterial and scandalous allegations within the 147 paragraphs which represent a consolidation of all of the allegations previously dismissed,’ Maierhoffer wrote. ‘[Parks Miller] did not follow the explicit instructions of this Court regarding the pleading of a Fourth Amendment claim.’

Parks Miller filed a 13-count complaint last year after allegations that she had forged Ruest’s signature on a fake bail order as part of a sting operation in a jailhouse murder-for-hire plot against a former assistant DA. A grand jury found no wrongdoing by Parks Miller and concluded Ruest had signed the order. Parks Miller’s lawsuit contained charges of defamation, malicious prosecution, breach of confidentiality and other counts. A significant part of Parks Miller’s suit stems from county officials pursuing an investigation of her after the case had already been referred to a grand jury. 

Earlier this month her attorney, Bruce Castor, filed an amended complaint saying the two commissioners and former officials ‘each used political and financial pressure to coerce the Bellefonte Police to obtain and execute a defective warrant (with the assistance of Judge Ruest) in search of evidence without probable cause to support what could never be a criminal offence.’ 

Castor, who is also the Pennsylvania Solicitor General in the Office of Attorney General Kathleen Kane, also alleged a history of animosity between the county defendants and Parks Miller and that they compelled Bellefonte Police to carry out an illegal search.

Maierhofer said Parks Miller is rehashing claims that have already been dismissed while failing to abide by Brann’s instructions to identify in what capacity the claim is brought against Boyde, Glantz, Exarchos and Dershem.

She also wrote that the search itself was not an ‘unreasonable intrusion’ because a properly executed search warrant was issuedand that the items seized were all government property.

‘Defendants are afforded certain immunities that prevent this litigation from moving forward regardless of the number of times [Parks Miller] amends her pleading,’ Maierhofer wrote. ‘The failure to address or at least follow the outline by this Court in setting forth a valid Fourth Amendment claim as well as failing to follow the other Court’s rulings, requires dismissal of the Second Amended Complaint.’