CR Landlord’s Tax, Mail Fraud Sentencing Reset to August

By Trish Mehaffey

Robert Miell.

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By Becky Ogann

Story Created: May 21, 2010 at 6:33 PM CDT

Story Updated: May 21, 2010 at 6:33 PM CDT

CEDAR RAPIDS - U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett continued the sentencing of Cedar Rapids landlord Robert Miell Friday as requested by his attorney.

The sentencing is reset for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 17.

Alfredo Parrish, Miell’s Des Moines attorney, filed a motion to delay the sentencing so he would have time to review a mental evaluation conducted on Miell, 55, of Cedar Rapids, earlier this month.

Assistant U.S. Attorney C.J. Williams said he was concerned about Miell’s mental health during a hearing in April when Miell asked the court to dismiss Parrish as his attorney and continues to want to file documents that none of the lawyers want to file. Williams threatened to file a motion to have the court order Miell to undergo a mental evaluation but Miell voluntarily agreed to have one.

Parrish is Miell’s fifth attorney since 2008 in this case. Miell has dismissed them because all of them have given him advice he doesn’t want to follow. He wanted to testify during the sentencing hearing, which started last September but was continued because his lawyers advised him against it. They then asked to be dismissed from the case.

Miell pleaded guilty to 18 counts of mail fraud and two counts of perjury, and in January 2009 he was convicted by a jury of two counts of tax fraud. The charges stem from Miell’s fraudulent reports to American Family Insurance of more than $336,000 in storm damage at 145 properties.

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