Murder plot foiled

Updated July 18 at 10 a.m.

Mary Miller and her daughter, Ann, both of Inwood, surrendered to Nassau County police at the 4th Precinct on Tuesday in connection with allegations against Miller’s son, Daniel, that he attempted to hire a hit man to murder a teenager.

Mary Miller, 80, a secretary at Lawrence High School, was charged with official misconduct, and Ann Miller, 59, was charged with conspiracy and tampering with a witness for their alleged roles in a murder-for-hire plot that was foiled by police. Both could face up to a year in prison if convicted.

On Jan. 3, the Nassau County district attorney’s office alleges, Daniel Miller, 45, drugged and sexually assaulted a 17-year-old male employee of his Santeria religious-supply store, Botanica Inle-Osain, on Mott Street. Santeria is a religion that combines West African, Catholic and Native American traditions.

Miller allegedly gave the young man, who had just begun working at the store, a cup containing a liquid mixed with Lorazepam, a drug that slows brain activity and impairs equilibrium, and encouraged him to drink it. The teen, unaware that he was being drugged, woke up at about 4 a.m. in Miller’s house, according to police. Miller then drove the young man home.

After an investigation, Miller was arrested at his Inwood home on April 19 and charged with first-degree criminal sexual act and other violations. He complained of chest pains and was admitted to the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was arraigned bedside on April 20, and pleaded not guilty. He is currently being held in the Nassau County Correctional Center.

“Despite the devastating trauma the victim was put through at the hands of this defendant, Daniel Miller decided that it still wasn’t enough,” District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. According to Rice, detectives were told in June by a confidential source about a murder-for-hire scheme involving Miller. The source said that he was approached by a relative of Miller’s and asked to visit Miller in jail.

During the visit, Miller asked the man to arrange to have the teenage sexual abuse victim killed, and directed the man to go to Miller’s home for more information, the D.A.’s office said. There the man met with two of Miller’s family members, who gave him documents that included personal information about the intended victim.

The man was offered $15,000 by Miller to arrange the killing, according to the D.A.’s office, and make it look like a cell phone robbery. Miller also allegedly told the man that his mother had stolen the teen’s personal records from Lawrence High School.

When asked about Mary Miller, Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall said only, “Mary Miller is an employee of the Lawrence School District.”

The D.A.’s office also said that before hatching the murder-for-hire plot, Daniel Miller had asked a relative to have an unidentified man make a voodoo doll of the teenager and stick pins and knives into it, and use the young man’s photo and dirt from outside his home to perform a ritual intended to give him cancer.

Miller, already imprisoned, was indicted for his alleged role in the plot on July 12 on one count each of second-degree conspiracy and second-degree criminal solicitation. Bail was set at $5 million bond or $2.5 million cash. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, and is due back in court on Aug. 1.

Nicole D’Iorio, an Inwood resident and the director of Hard Knox, a youth-oriented organization, said of the Miller family’s alleged crimes, “It is a blow to the entire community.” D’Iorio noted that Mary Miller was someone she leaned on for advice during her years at Lawrence High.