Former Centre County district attorney reinstated after more than 2-year suspension
Centre County’s former top prosecutor has been reinstated to practice law by the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania after a more than two-year suspension.
Stacy Parks Miller, former Centre County district attorney, was suspended in February 2019 for one year and one day by the state Disciplinary Board after being accused of engaging in ex parte communications with county judges without informing defense lawyers and of improper creation and use of a fake Facebook page. An attorney who is suspended for a period exceeding one year is unable to resume practicing law until reinstated by the court.
The Aug. 3 recommendation to reinstate Parks Miller from the state Disciplinary Board was unanimous and the order from the state Supreme Court was issued on Wednesday. The court also ordered Parks Miller to pay the expenses incurred by the board in the investigation and processing of the Petition for Reinstatement.
According to the Disciplinary Board’s report, Parks Miller “repeatedly expressed sincere remorse and deep regret” during a November 2020 reinstatement hearing and admitted she had not fully accepted responsibility for her misconduct during her 2018 disciplinary proceedings.
“I do think that the things that I have done absolutely were an abuse of the power of the position I was given ... I impaired the entire system, the confidence in the system. ... So I now understand the impact of what I did to the profession and also that position,” she testified.
Her one year and one day long suspension expired March 11, 2020. The length of her suspension effectively doubled because of uncharged allegations of misconduct, her attorney Bruce Castor wrote in a document earlier this year. The accusations of violating grand jury secrecy provisions took months to resolve and was a “crushing blow” to her bid for reinstatement, Castor wrote.
Her testimony and the testimony of four witnesses during the November hearing demonstrated “her resumption of the practice of law will not harm the public or be detrimental to the integrity of the profession,” the Disciplinary Board’s report states.
During her suspension, Parks Miller worked as a paralegal for attorney William Shaw, as a certified peer specialist at CenClear and performed research for Professor Rosemary L. Gido.
During the November hearing, Parks Miller said that she plans to practice criminal defense and general civil litigation in Centre County if reinstated and called being a lawyer “a purpose.”
“I love being in a courtroom ... I love getting to know people, meeting people, when they have a problem and sitting down and saying how can I use my skill set to solve it for them,” she testified.
Parks Miller made “credible assurances that she has learned from her experiences and is determined that her misconduct will not be repeated in the future, as she will be ‘hyper vigilant’ in adhering to the conduct rules,” according to court documents.
She filed her request for reinstatement Jan. 28, 2020, saying she has the “moral qualifications, competency and learning in law” that is required for readmission.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 2:42 PM.
