November 15, 2005

STATEMENT FROM NASSAU COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY

When Andrew Miller pled guilty to the highest count of the indictment filed against him, I recommended to Acting Supreme Court Judge Alan Honorof that he sentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment in a State Correctional Facility. The Court rejected that recommendation and instead gave the defendant a commitment that he would receive no more than six months incarceration at the Nassau County Correction Center followed by four and one half years on probation.

I feel that this Court’s actions in this case are wrong for several reasons. Most important, it fails to adequately punish the defendant for his actions. Miller was the professional accountant hired by the Roslyn School District to be its outside auditor. Instead of fulfilling his fiduciary responsibilities to the District and the taxpayers of Roslyn, the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal the ongoing thefts by the administrators and staff. He failed several times to alert the Board of his knowledge of this ongoing scheme and he lied to investigators during the initial stages of my investigation. The Court’s proposed sentence does not punish Mr. Miller sufficiently for the crimes he committed.

Secondly, the proposed sentence has no deterrent value. It sends a message that if you betray the public trust, there will be no consequence. It is not even consistent with the sentence commitments already given by the Judge to other defendants who cooperated significantly in the investigation.

Finally, this sentence commitment impedes the ongoing investigation by my office and the State Comptroller into wrongdoing in Roslyn and other school districts in Nassau County.

I urge the Court to withdraw its sentence commitment and sentence the defendant to an upstate prison sentence.