GRANADA HILLS : No Contest Plea in Animal Cruelty Case

A 52-year-old Christmas tree mogul pleaded no contest to keeping his fallow deer, which he decorated as reindeer, enclosed with inadequate fencing, ending a nine-month case that began last summer when one of the deer died, authorities said Wednesday.

A San Fernando Municipal Court jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of convicting Stuart Miller on animal neglect charges in January. On the eve of his retrial last week, he pleaded no contest to a charge of keeping livestock in inadequate facilities, Deputy City Atty. Norman Wegener said.

One of Miller’s herd of fallow deer, which he decorated as reindeer during the Christmas season, died when its antlers were tangled in the wire fencing around the herd’s Granada Hills pen in August, Wegener said.

Charges of animal neglect and keeping animals without a permit were filed against Stuart Miller and his son and business partner, William Miller, 31.

William Miller was acquitted in January of animal cruelty, but convicted of the permit charge. Stuart Miller was acquitted of the permit charge. He pleaded no contest April 26, and was sentenced to 15 days of community service and fined $910 by San Fernando Municipal Judge Jeffrey Wiatt, Wegener said.

Stuart Miller insists he is the victim of wrongful prosecution, noting that the plea agreement states: “The animals on the defendant’s property were properly fed, watered and protected from the weather.”

“It cost me $60,000,” Miller said of the first trial. “I’d be fighting this thing again. But I can’t afford it.”

Wegener said he is satisfied with the plea bargain. “The gravamen of the case was the dangerous condition of the fence,” he said. “I’m not entirely sure (Stuart Miller) recognizes his role in this unfortunate incident and accepts responsibility.”

Part of the plea bargain was for animal cruelty charges against another of Stuart Miller’s sons, Ty Miller, 30, to be dropped. Ty Miller was charged after the first trial, when defense witnesses testified that he was responsible for the Granada Hills facility. For a time, authorities for a time were unable to locate him. Stuart Miller said Ty Miller was on a foreign trip and could not be contacted.