About a dozen Amish men and women made the trip from the Middlefield area to Warren Monday morning to attend the hearing of Daniel Miller, 47, of West Farmington, now charged with sexually assaulting

Staff report

WARREN

About a dozen Amish men and women made the trip from the Middlefield area to Warren on Monday to attend the hearing of Daniel Miller, 47, of West Farmington, now charged with sexually assaulting seven young girls.

Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court increased Miller’s bond to $350,000 after Gabe Wildman, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, recommended $1 million because of the additional purported victims.

Atty. Alan Matavich, with the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, said Miller had been unable to post the $250,000 bond Judge Kontos ordered last week and asked for bond of $100,000.

Miller was originally charged with two counts of rape, seven counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of sexual battery involving five girls age 11 to 14 — some of them related to Miller and some not.

Prosecutors allege Miller committed those offenses from 2009 July 2012.

About 25 Amish men and women attended Miller’s hearing a week ago when he was arraigned on the original charges.

A superseding indictment was handed up Thursday, charging Miller with three more counts of rape and three more counts of gross sexual imposition involving two additional female victims age 5 to 10.

An Amish man who attended the hearing, when asked if he was there to support Miller, said he had come for “support and concern.” He said he would like Miller to “get help” but said such help probably would have to come “some other way” than through the courts.

Miller was arrested on his original charges while he was at Whispering Hope, a treatment facility in Newville, Pa., west of Harrisburg, Pa.

The rape charges each carry a possible life prison sentence.