Convicted sex felon ‘showed no remorse’
WAYNESBURG – A Megan’s Law offender with three previous convictions of assaulting children is accused of fondling an 8-year-old girl inside a Waynesburg residence Saturday afternoon.
Benjamin T. Miller, 40, was arrested over the weekend and charged with touching the young girl’s genitals and chest while she was napping in her swimsuit on a couch shortly before 1 p.m., Waynesburg police said.
Police said the girl was staying with babysitters Saturday when Miller, who is an acquaintance of the couple watching the girl, came over to their North Morris Street residence. The man watching the girl left for the store, police said, and the woman fell asleep.
Waynesburg police Officer George Lewis said the babysitters knew Miller was a convicted child molester and served 12 years in prison following three convictions in the early 2000s. Lewis said investigators are deciding whether the babysitters should face charges in the case since they knowingly left the girl in Miller’s care. Police did not release their identities.
“The babysitters left the girl with him knowing what he had done in the past,” Lewis said. “They allowed him there, and they left him alone with her there.”
Police said the girl told her parents about the alleged assault shortly after, prompting her father to confront Miller at his home at 191 E. Greene St. in Waynesburg. The girl was interviewed by borough police later in the afternoon and said Miller began fondling her while she was sleeping and then continued after she awakened.
“(Miller) stopped when he heard the door open and told (the girl) not to tell,” court documents indicate.
Police said they met Saturday night with Miller and he wrote a confession about the assault.
“He showed no remorse,” Waynesburg police Chief Rob Toth said. “He was just trying to clarify what he did and really wasn’t remorseful.”
Miller faces felony charges of statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault of a child, sexual assault, indecent assault of a child less than 13 years old and corruption of a minor. District Judge Lee Watson arraigned Miller early Sunday morning and he is being held at the Greene County jail on $250,000 bond.
Miller pleaded guilty in Lebanon County Court in October 2000 to indecent assault and corruption of a minor in two separate cases, according to state court records. He was ordered to register on the Megan’s Law website list for the rest of his life following the convictions. He also pleaded guilty to statutory rape, indecent assault and corruption of minors in Lebanon County in 2002.
Toth urged parents to use the Megan’s Law website operated by Pennsylvania State Police to check if sex offenders are living nearby, although he acknowledged the babysitters already knew about Miller’s history.
“Megan’s Law does a pretty good job of notifying us as soon as someone’s in the area,” Toth said. “But people need to be aware. Unfortunately, these things happen. It’s a sad thing.”