On February 8, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court approved its Disciplinary Board’s proposal to suspend former, Centre County District Attorney, Stacy Parks Miller, for 366 days overimproper, ex-parte communications with judges and the creation and dissemination of a fictitious Facebook page.
Parks Miller first violated her ethical duties by communicating with two judges to discuss pending criminal cases without informing or copying the defendants or the defendants’ counsel. According to the disciplinary board, this “created the appearance of impropriety in the judicial system.”
Parks Miller’s creation of a fake, Facebook page, however, played a bigger role in the Court’s and Disciplinary Board’s findings. Specifically, Parks Miller created a Facebook page under the name “Britney Bella” to monitor three stores who had sold bath salts in an effort to an enforce an injunction that declared the sale of bath salts to be a public nuisance. At the time Parks Miller created the page, legislation was pending in Pennsylvania that would make the sale of bath salts illegal.
Parks Miller used photos of “young female individuals to enhance the page’s allure.” Parks Miller would then use the Bella page to “like” the three stores, with the goal of obtaining and testing free bath salt samples. The Bella page also gained “likes” and friend requests, including friend requests by defendants being charged by Parks Miller’s office. In one case, Parks Miller affirmatively sent a criminal defendant a friend request from the Bella page, but the defendant did not accept.
Further, Parks Miller emailed attorneys and staff members, informing them that she had “made a Facebook page that is false for us” “to befriend defendants or witnesses if you want to snoop.” Eventually, authorities raided the three stores after Parks Miller’s snooping.
The Disciplinary Board found that the Bella page and its circulation violated ethics rules because it amounted to fraudulent and deceptive conduct. While Parks Miller testified that the page acted as a law enforcement operation that helped the prosecution of illegal drug sales, the Board concluded that “[r]egardless of [Parks Miller’s] intent to curb criminal activity in her county, she was not permitted to engage in dishonest conduct,” including convincing her staff to engage in dishonest conduct by using the Bella page.
Lastly, in its recommendation the Board expressed that Parks Miller “betrayed the faith and trust of the public by engaging in misconduct in her official capacity, including dishonest acts, and this factor weighs heavily in the assessment of discipline.”
Read the opinion here.
