Local band teacher accused of raping student, taking pictures of the sex acts

May 14, 2009 - 6:12 PM

Surprising new evidence surfaces in the case of a popular band teacher accused of having sex with students and fellow co-workers inside his band room.

Heath Miller, former band teacher at Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens, may stay behind bars for a long time. Prosecutors are furious, they've found what appears to be photos of Miller having sex with young girls. They also say he tried to destroy evidence and even intimidate the victims into changing their stories.

Miller was voted the most popular teacher at the school in 2007. Now he's accused of having sex or fondling four of his students. One even says he pulled her out of class and then raped her inside his band room. Now we're finding out inside that band room was a memory card. Police say stored in that card were pictures of him having sex with girls. The card was turned in by another teacher that Miller had sex with at school. She says Miller asked her to remove the card from band room so police couldn't find it.

The state is also worried about Miller's attempts to get the victims to change their stories by having other people contact the victims.
In a motion just filled, prosecutors are asking that Miller stay jailed until his trial due to the "probability of intimidation and danger to the victims and witnesses."

In addition to keeping Miller behind bars, the state also wants to limit his mail and phone privileges.
Heath Miller's hearing that was scheduled for today has been cancelled. According to the Clerk of Courts office, Miller's attorney requested a waiver for arraignment.
According the the jail, Miller was supposed to have a bond hearing this morning, but Miller's attorney dropped his opposition that he not get a bond hearing.

http://www.cbs12.com/news/miller-4717878-band-sex.html

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A middle school music teacher who catapulted into the headlines when he shot dead a home intruder in his Wellington home has been arrested on charges of sexually molesting students at his Palm Beach Gardens middle school.

School board police investigators on Monday arrested Heath Miller, 34, a teacher at H.L. Watkins Middle, on charges of sexual assault. A judge this morning ordered him held in detention until a judge is assigned to the case and can set bail.

A personal den where Palm Beach County School District police say the 34-year-old music teacher lured female students for unprotected sex, possibly for years.
Miller was jailed last month on charges of having sex with one student and fondling others.
On Thursday, he was slammed with a dozen more charges, including rape, after additional victims came forward, tearing down a small empire the charismatic Miller had built for himself at the Palm Beach Gardens school.
It was a place where, according to a school police investigative report, female teachers spoke openly about his reputation for having "threesomes" with other teachers.

He had multiple affairs with women in the school, including a Watkins math teacher who told police her rendezvous with Miller also occurred in the band uniform room, the report said. And he had sex with two eighth-graders and fondled two others, it said.
He became so bold that, by the end, he pulled one girl from her remedial reading class with no explanation and raped her in April, the report said. Days later, he barged into a guidance counselor's office where the girl sat crying and asked the counselor to leave. The counselor refused.
Police also say he tried to coerce an adult mistress to ask victims to recant their reports to police.

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