TRUMBULL COUNTY Former jail guard asks for release from prison

It is not known when the appellate court will rule on the motions.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A former Trumbull County corrections officer convicted of a bribery charge and sentenced to two years in prison is asking to be released pending appeal.
A motion has been filed with the 11th District Court of Appeals by Michelle Miller's attorney, James R. Willis, asking that she be released because she is not a flight risk and has no previous convictions.
Miller, 40, also is appealing her bribery conviction.
She was convicted in May after a jury trial. Judge Peter Kontos of common pleas court sentenced her in June.
A federal inmate who was being held in the county jail testified during Miller's trial that he offered to pay Miller and another jailer $40,000 if they helped him escape.
Maintains innocence
Miller, who quit the sheriff's department in September 2003, maintains her innocence.
The prosecutor's office has filed briefs with the appellate court opposing Miller's release. It is not known when the court will rule on the motions.
"First, by virtue of her conviction and sentence to two years of incarceration, she is a flight risk," according to the brief written by LuWayne Annos, an assistant county prosecutor. "She has nothing to lose by absconding during the course of this appeal because she's going to prison anyway."
The prosecution noted that in 2003 Miller had applied for a job in Maryland.
"Appellant [Miller] has been stripped of her cloak of innocence by virtue of her conviction," Annos' motion states. "She has no constitutional right to bail pending the outcome of her appeal."
Willis disagreed, saying the state's argument that Miller would leave the area is "farfetched and specious, actually is ridiculous," in his four-page reply filed with the court.
He also objected to Annos' statement that Miller has nothing to lose by absconding.
"To even make such a farcical argument exposes an apparent belief on counsel's part that all appeals should be abolished as a waste of time," Willis' motion states.
sinkovich@vindy.com