Man Sentenced For Aiming Rifle At Family Mistaken For Shoplifters

Thu., March 13, 1997

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

Pend Oreille County store operator Loren Miller was sentenced to 240 hours of community service Wednesday for holding an innocent family at gunpoint after mistaking them for shoplifters.

District Court Judge Chuck Baechler suspended five months of jail and $2,000 in fines on condition that Miller commits no similar offenses for two years.

A jury convicted Miller, 51, last week of illegally displaying a firearm and detaining a Republic, Wash., family as they drove through northern Pend Oreille County at night last March.

Steve and Joy Russ and their 11-year-old son, Joe, apparently were passing by Miller’s convenience store at Tiger about the time two teenage boys in baggy pants shoplifted a couple of cases of beer and fled in a low-rider pickup.

Miller didn’t see the thieves and said he got only sketchy information from his daughter before giving chase.

He stopped the Russes’ Chevrolet Blazer about eight miles south of the store by flashing his headlights. The Russes testified they were terrified when Miller pointed a rifle at them before realizing he had stopped the wrong vehicle.

Miller issued a written apology Wednesday, saying his action was wrong but insisting he did not point his rifle at the Russes.

Baechler ordered Miller to pay $1,500 in court costs even though Miller was represented by a public defender. Miller claimed his ex-wife and daughter own the store even though he lives with them and was acting as their agent.

, DataTimes

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