The name's the same and many of the details are extremely similar in a story that's strange and getting stranger.
See also: Medical Marijuana: Ann Marie Miller Sues North Metro Drug Task Force, Sheriff Over MMJ Raid
Our first post about Miller dates back to June 2010. Miller told us that she'd been working as an apartment manager at a complex in Adams County when she got into a dispute with the landlord over an alleged theft. A short time later, the landlord entered her apartment to investigate a water leak and found she had numerous marijuana plants.
Miller said she was both a medical marijuana patient and a caregiver, but the landlord called the cops, who determined she had more plants than was legally allowable. She also complained that law enforcers trashed her place -- a claim a police representative denied.
A few days later, Miller told us she returned to her apartment to find she'd been locked out and her belongings placed in the parking lot -- everything except her plants. So she and a friend broke a window in order to get her marijuana back -- a decision that ended with her being charged with second-degree burglary and misdemeanor theft in addition to marijuana cultivation.The latter charge was listed as a felony even though a law change months later would have made her offense a misdemeanor.
The following February, Miller filed lawsuits against police over the raid -- complaints she created herself. She also decided to fight the felony marijuana charge even though she was offered a misdemeanor deal. The reason? She didn't want a guilty plea on her record because she feared losing custody of a son born in October. According to her, she'd left the boy home alone when he was just a few weeks old in order to visit the emergency room. As a result, he was taken away from her in the wake of a neglect accusation.
A month later, Miller said the marijuana charge against her had been dropped, leaving just the theft and child abuse allegations. But the latest developments call this assertion into question.
The next chapter of the tale is shared by WZVN-TV in Fort Myers, Florida. The station reports that a woman identifying herself as Julia Wadsworth was arrested in Lima, Ohio, after trying to obtain a driver's license using a bogus birth certificate. But when trying to confirm her identity during the booking process, police discovered she'd burned her fingerprints off.
Voter registration records showed that a woman named Julia Wadsworth had previously been living in a mobile home in the community of Fort Myers Beach. There, she'd been the caregiver for an elderly resident. But since no one knew if Wadsworth was her real name -- and because she otherwise declined to cooperate -- the cops circulated a photo of the woman as a Jane Doe.Other pics were shared by the Lima News, an Ohio newspaper, including images from a court appearance when she was said to have been acting in a weird manner. Here's one of those images, as shared on the WZVN broadcast:
The photos inspired a call from a tipster, who said the woman was most likely Ann Marie Miller -- and investigators have now said they believe that to be true.But is this Ann Marie Miller the one involved in the events detailed above? Well, the Lima News describes her as a "40-year-old disbarred attorney from Virginia" who'd been charged with assorted crimes, including tampering with a vehicle identification number, burglary, assault, stalking, disorderly conduct and threatening language over a public airway owing to a "love triangle" with a "male attorney" who "left her for a paralegal in their office."
However, the local sheriff also said Miller is wanted in Colorado for charges that include "burglary, two counts of possession of burglary tools, trespassing, criminal mischief and a felony marijuana cultivation charge."
We can't confirm that the woman in these photos is the Ann Marie Miller with whom we spoke; all of our communication took place over the phone. But if she's not, it's a mighty large coincidence. Here's the aforementioned WZVN report about "Julia Wadsworth."
ABC-7.com WZVN News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.
