JURY FINDS FORMER PROSECUTOR GUILTY

Former prosecutor Will Miller, once proclaimed a tabloid's "Miracle Man"
after escaping a mugger's gunshot, met a bullet he couldn't dodge in King
County Superior Court yesterday.

A jury convicted Miller of selling methamphetamine to an undercover deputy
three times and trying to sell the drug a fourth time. He could face up to
10 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 11.

Miller took the jury's verdict calmly and later expressed little regret
that he didn't accept a plea deal from prosecutors. He said the deal would
have meant a sentence of only 120 days.

"I can understand a jury being resentful of an ex-prosecutor making
mistakes," Miller said.

Miller, 38, admitted he sold the drugs but said he was entrapped by police
and betrayed by his former lover. He also said his own drug addiction
dragged him down. He first snorted, then injected, methamphetamine.

He has also maintained from the beginning that authorities targeted him
because he is a former prosecutor and successful defense attorney.

"I think I was held to a higher standard," he said.

He now claims he has ample grounds to overturn his conviction on appeal,
including a possible violation of his constitutional rights because
deputies brought a KOMO-TV news crew with them when they raided his home.

The former prosecutor also hopes he can get a sentence low enough to allow
him to be housed in a work-ethic camp, rather than a prison.

Brian Moran, who prosecuted the case, would not discuss any plea deal that
he offered Miller. But he said there are "no winners" in a case involving
methamphetamine.

Moran is with the Washington Attorney General's Office, which took over the
case to avoid any conflict with Miller's former employer, the King County
Prosecutor's Office.

Yesterday's verdict may bring an end to what once was a promising legal
career for Miller. He prosecuted felons from 1988 to 1995 in New York,
working mostly on sex crimes. He was valued enough that prosecutors in
Queens recruited him away from the Brooklyn Prosecutor's Office.

His highest notoriety, however, came on the streets of Brooklyn in 1991. A
mugger shot at him, but the bullet only grazed Miller's head. The New York
Post called him "Miracle Man" on its front page, a copy of which Miller had
mounted on a wall of his Ballard home.

Miller moved to Seattle in 1995 and joined the King County Prosecutor's
Office. He did well, winning nearly all his cases. In two years, he was
made a supervisor who directed new prosecutors in misdemeanor courts.

In 1997, he also met Jeff Vinson. The two men fell in love, and Vinson
moved in with Miller. According to statements in court, Vinson was a
longtime heroin addict.

Miller himself began using drugs after meeting Vinson, he said in court.

In March 1998, he arrived at the King County Courthouse for work -- for the
last time. A routine security search turned up a scale, drug pipe and drug
residue.

Miller said the items were Vinson's. He resigned as a prosecutor, but no
criminal charges were filed.

Miller went to work as a defense attorney. Vinson moved out of the house
and in late 1998 talked with the King County Sheriff's Office about being
an informant.

That led to an undercover investigation of Miller. A deputy posing as a
fisherman about to head for Alaska bought methamphetamine three times from
Miller in January and February 1999. Then, on the day the undercover
officer was to make a larger buy, deputies raided Miller's home and
arrested him.