By Brianna Pitts
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — A Cromwell man will serve five years in prison after pleading guilty to child molestation.

Darren Eric Miller, 27, Cromwell, pled guilty to child molesting, a level 4 felony. An additional child molesting charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Darren Eric Miller

Miller was sentenced in Kosciusko Superior Court One on Thursday, Sept. 21.

For child molestation, Kosciusko Superior Court One Judge Karin McGrath sentenced Miller to eight years in the Indiana Department of Correction, with five of those years being served in prison and consecutively with other criminal cases. The remaining three years were suspended on formal probation. There is a no-contact order in place between Miller and the victim. Miller must also register as a sex offender. He has a jail time credit of 225 days.

During the sentencing, Defense Attorney Jay Rigdon spoke on Miller’s behalf, saying Miller had learned from his actions and recommended only two to three years of jail time.

McGrath explained to the court Miller had a prior criminal history of delinquency before this case.

When McGrath spoke specifically of this case, she said, “Child molest is child molest and I don’t know how any child will not suffer harm from this abuse. What makes this case even worse is this child was in Miller’s care at the time of the abuse.”

According to court documents, on Aug. 18, 2022, staff at Wawasee Community School Corporation reported an incident where a student came to school with a bruise on their neck. The student went to the school nurse’s office with a complaint of a sore neck. When asked how it got there, the student said they woke up with it. The child’s guardian said there was no reason for there to be a bruise on the child’s neck and Department of Child Services was then contacted.

In a forensic interview on Oct. 26, 2022, the child said Miller was the one who gave them the bruise on their neck and reported having been touched over their clothes by him too. The child reported Miller touching them on 10 different occasions at the guardian’s residence.

On Nov. 14, 2022, Miller came to the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office for an interview. When asked about the bruise on the child’s neck, he said he accidentally bit the child’s neck while he was tickling them. Miller was adamant it was an accident and agreed to submit to a polygraph examination.

On Nov. 28, 2022, Miller arrived at the Warsaw Police Department and submitted to a polygraph examination given by Indiana State Police. This examination showed Miller to be deceptive. In the post-examination interview, Miller admitted to touching the child over their clothes, but it was an accident that occurred while tickling them. Miller also stated that it was 95% possible that he sucked on the child’s neck causing bruising, but still maintained he bit their neck.