March 22, 2017
Man Convicted in Same-Sex Child Custody Case to Be Sentenced
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A Virginia businessman is scheduled to be sentenced in New York for his role in a same-sex couple's child custody fight.
A federal judge in Buffalo convicted Philip Zodhiates (zoh-dee-AH'-tehs), of Waynesboro, last year on charges of international parental kidnapping and conspiracy.
Prosecutors say Zodhiates helped Lisa Miller take her then 7-year-old daughter out of the country to avoid losing custody to her former partner after Miller dissolved her civil union in Vermont and became an evangelical Christian. Authorities say Zodhiates drove the pair from Virginia to the Canadian border in 2009 so they could fly from Toronto to Nicaragua.
Neither has been seen in the U.S. since.
In court papers, Zodhiates says Miller took advantage of him.
The government is seeking a prison sentence of 3 to 4 years.
