Acting AG Carol Thomas-Jacobs: Rodney E. Miller, Sr. advised of rights and arraigned on a 16-Count Information

(U.S. Virgin Islands)- Acting Attorney General Carol Thomas-Jacobs announces that Rodney E. Miller, Sr., was advised of his rights and arraigned on February 17, 2023.
Miller appeared in V.I. Superior Court before Honorable Magistrate Judge Paula Norkaitis. Judge Norkaitis found probable cause for prosecutors to charge Miller with one count of violation of the Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (CICO), 5 counts of Embezzlement or Falsification of Public Accounts, 5 Counts of Conversion of Government Property, and 5 Counts of Embezzlement by Public and Private Officers. In the information, prosecutors alleged that while Miller was the Chief Executive Officer of the Roy Lester Schneider Hospital and Medical Center (RLSH) he fraudulently obtained and appropriated over $1.6 million of the Hospital’s funds to himself. His bail was set at $5,000.
Miller and two other RLSH executives were initially charged in October 2008 with multiple offenses arising out of their tenure at the RLSH. The initial trial ended in a mistrial in June 2011. After years of appeals and other proceedings, they were retried in a six-week jury trial which resulted in the jury convicting all of the defendants on all charges totaling 44 counts between them. All three RLSH executives appealed their convictions to the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands. As it relates to Miller, he challenged in his appeal the sufficiency of the evidence of his convictions. In a February 22, 2022, Opinion, the Supreme Court ordered the Superior Court to enter a judgment of acquittal on some counts and for several other counts charging violation of CICO, Obtaining money by false pretenses, and embezzlement of public accounts, the Supreme Court found that “the People introduced sufficient evidence to sustain Miller’s convictions” however, it remanded the case for a new trial on those counts due to the “failure of the Superior Court to take appropriate action to ensure that the jury rendered a unanimous verdict or to ascertain the value of the property stolen, embezzled or falsely obtained as required by title 5, section 3636 of the Virgin Islands Code.” Currently, the People allege that more than $1.6 million that rightfully belongs to RLSH and were fraudulently appropriated by Miller remains in his accounts.