A former Observer sports reporter and youth basketball coach in Sarnia faces more charges, after additional victims were identified in two historical sexual assault investigations, police say.
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Offenses date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the accused was in a position of authority as a youth basketball coach in the community, Sarnia police said in a news release.
James (Jim) Matthew Miller, 59, now of Penticton, BC, where he’s also a city councilor, was arrested with the assistance of RCMP in BC Nov. 8, Sarnia police said.
Miller is charged with seven counts of sexual interference, three counts of invitation to sexual touching, and one count of sexual assault, police said.
Miller was released with conditions in BC, after appearing virtually in a Sarnia court, police said.
The investigation is ongoing and anyone with additional information is asked to call Sarnia Det.-Const. Andrew Veale at 519-344-8861 ext. 6231, police said.
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Miller was previously charged with two counts each of sexual interference and sexual assault on a person under age 16.
Court records show those offenses allegedly took place in Michigan between Jan. 1, 1989, and Dec. 31, 1989.
He was granted $1,000 lease in August, ordered to live in Penticton, notify police if he moves, and not to contact the complainant or be in the direct company of anyone under age 16.
Miller was acquitted in Sarnia in 2006 of similar historical charges from the 1980s, according to multiple reports.
Castanet, a news website based in Kelowna, reported in September — quoting Okanagan Newspaper Group — that Miller, editor of the Penticton Herald and Kelowna Daily Courier, “has been reassigned to desk duties with Okanagan Newspaper Group while his matter is before the court. ”
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Miller was first charged in 2005 with three counts of sexual assault, one count of sexual interference and two counts of intimidation of a justice system participant, The London Free Press reported. The charges stemmed from a complaint by a man who told police he was assaulted between 1984 and 1986 when he was between six and eight years old, the report said.
All of the charges laid in 2005 were dropped the following year, The Observer reported. Miller was on unpaid leave from the newspaper while the charges were before the courts.
The 2005 charges came to light in Penticton last summer, prompting the city to ask Miller to step back from public events while it investigated, according to Castanet. In a statement issued July 24, 2023, council said it considered the matter closed and Miller was encouraged to attend community events again.
A Penticton city spokesperson in August said Miller, elected to council in 2021, has been placed on a mandatory leave of absence through a section of BC’s Community Charter that applies to a council member charged with a criminal offense.
-with files from Terry Bridge
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