Amos Miller, the agribusinessman from Bird-In-Hand, PA, continues filing papers with the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania.
It’s not known if the filings are taking him down a rabbit hole or if there might be a legal strategy somewhere.
Miller owns farmlands in multiple states and has a national sales reach involving about 4,000 customers through a buyer’s club that deliveries meat, egg, dairy products, and fermented fruits and vegetables.
Nearly six years ago, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), represented by the U.S. Justice Department, filed a civil action seeking to make Miller and his Miller’s Organic Farm comply with federal meat and poultry food safety statutes.
The DOJ has sought to force Miler to operate under the “Federal Grant of Inspection” before his farm may slaughter, prepare, process, or sell for distribution any meat or poultry products.
According to DOJ, federally inspected establishments must:
- Demonstrate the ability to meet USDA-FSIS requirements for producing safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled products.
- Satisfy sanitation, facility, and operational standards.
- Have food safety programs.
The DOJ won permanent injunctions against Miller in civil actions closed out in March 2017 and in November 2019. FSIS found Miller out of compliance with the second order, and those proceedings were essentially re-opened.
And while last year, it looked like Miller would comply with FSIS, this year, not so much.
Since the most recent telephone conference on May 6, Miller, for the third time, has petitioned the court to dismiss his attorney of record, Steven Ryan LaFuente of Dallas, TX.
Miller last year first said he wanted to fire LaFuente and replace him with a “sovereign citizens” organization based in Washington State. LaFuente filed a motion to leave the case, but the judge did not accept it.
No one involved with the sovereign citizens group was qualified to replace LaFuente, so he was not released.
Miller’s numerous filings, however, do not appear to be coming from his lawyer of record. He may be the author of the documents, sending them directly to the court from his “Bird-In-Hand” residence.
The sovereign citizens do appear to be having an influence. A “Certificate of Service” is signed by Miller “under the laws of the United States of America, without of the United States (Federal and State Government).”
Miller says federal Judge Edward G. Smith on May 6 found Miller “does not have the right to choose his attorney or operate in Propria Persona.”
Miller’s criminal rules of the court give him “the right to represent himself at any given time.”
One of the latest Miller filings is a 12-page notice on the existence of his birth certificate.
His other recent legal document filings include:
- “Notice and Lodgment of New Business Struction by Amos Miller.”
- “Motion to Dismiss Counsel of Recordfiling by Amos Miller.” (Second request)
- “Notice of Interlocutory Appeal”
- “Notice of Premises of Penhallow v. Doane’s”
- “Praecipe Order to Clark Regarding Status of Defendant.”
The website Anonymous recently depicted Amos Miller as ab Amish farmer “being persecuted by the federal government for religious freedom to raise and prepare food the way he believes food to be raised and prepared.”
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