Criminal case against Robert Miller should be thrown out because he's too sick, lawyers argue

A class action lawsuit was filed against tech company founder Robert Miller and his company Future Electronics.

The criminal case against Robert Miller should be thrown out because he is too ill to have a fair trial, the Montreal billionaire's lawyers say.

Miller was charged last Thursday with 21 counts, including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and enticing a person to commit prostitution, in relation to 10 complainants. Many of them were minors at the time of the alleged offences between 1994 and 2016.

However, Miller's legal team filed a motion in Superior Court arguing that the 80-year-old accused suffers from several health conditions, including "very advanced degenerative Parkinson's disease" and is "in an extremely frail condition, bedridden and under 24/7 care."

Lawyers Isabella Teolis and Nicholas St-Jacques are asking for a stay of proceedings, arguing in the motion filed on Tuesday that the criminal case would violate two of his Charter rights, including a right to a fair trial under section 11d of the Charter.

Participating in the criminal trial would "cause significant harm to his health," they claim. "He is and will never be able to defend himself."

Montreal police arrested the former Future Electronics CEO at his home in Westmount and released him on a promise to appear in court on July 3.

On Tuesday, one of his alleged accomplices, 67-year-old Teresita Fuentes, was also arrested and charged with a pimping offence and is set to appear in court also on July 3. Fuentes and Miller both live at the same address, according to court records.

Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations made against him.

Miller would need hospital bed in courtroom, medical staff: doctors

According to the motion, Miller was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1996 and his condition has progressed to Stage 5, "the most advanced stage of the disease, when all available treatments" sought in Canada and the U.S. "have failed."

His legal team filed seven medical reports from his family doctor, a neurologist, and a respiratory specialist explaining in great detail how frail he is. The reports state he is incontinent, has been bedridden since May 2022 and unable to feed himself.

Should he be required to attend court, the medical experts say he would need a full medical team at his side, a hospital bed with a lift, a blood pressure machine, an oxygen tank, and a bedside commode. His medications would need to be administered every 90 minutes and they take at least five minutes to consume.

"The stress incurred from multiple transportations and the courtroom place him at high risk for exacerbating any of the many medical complication above that may lead to a major or fatal outcome," wrote neurologist Dr. Theodore Wein in his report dated Jan. 10, 2024.

In a follow-up assessment on May 8, Wein wrote that Miller "has deteriorated since my last evaluation 4 months ago. Mr Miller is not medically stable enough to engage in transportation or to participate in depositions or testimony. As stated in my previous evaluations, his medical [conditions] will not improve and will only continue to worsen."

His lawyers say the evidence filed by his medical team prevents their client from testifying without causing serious harm and that the only remedy is to stay the case.

They also argue that to hold a trial in his absence or where it would seriously endanger his life, or when he cannot testify, "would cause serious and irremediable harm to the rights of the accused and to the integrity of the justice system."

A judge is expected to hear Miller's arguments at a later date.