[1][2] He completed a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Latino communities in Texas, and then attended Compton Junior College.
And in 1982, a psychologist examined Miller and told the FBI that he was emotionally unstable and should be nurtured along in some harmless post until retirement.During a September, 1986 segment for the CBS news program 60 Minutes, colleagues interviewed on camera observed that Miller had been such a sub-par performer that he had at one time lost his gun and FBI credentials.
[4] On October 3, 1984, Miller was arrested with Svetlana and Nikolai Ogorodnikov, Russian immigrants who had moved to Los Angeles in 1973 to seek refuge, but were access agents of the Soviet KGB.
[5][6] Miller was alleged to have provided classified documents, including an FBI Counterintelligence manual, to the Ogorodnikovs after demanding $50,000 in gold and $15,000 cash in return.
[5] Miller, who had eight children and was faced with financial difficulties, was having an affair with the married Svetlana Ogorodnikov, and was preparing to travel with her to Vienna at the time of his arrest.
[5] According to news accounts, Miller occasionally took three-hour "lunches" at the 7-Eleven near his Los Angeles office, gorging himself on stolen candy bars while reading comic books.
[10][13] At his second trial, which ended on June 19, 1986, Miller again claimed his actions were the result of unapproved attempts to infiltrate the KGB as a double agent.
[11] Miller was found guilty of espionage and bribery, and on July 14, 1986, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 50 years.
[11] These convictions were overturned in 1989 on the grounds that U.S. District Judge David Vreeland Kenyon erred in admitting polygraph evidence during the trial.
[16] He worked as a bus driver for a Los Angeles hotel, but the U.S. government later identified him as a security risk, targeted him for deportation, and held him in prison in Virginia during the proceedings.
[5] She was targeted for deportation, but married Bruce Perlowin, a convicted drug trafficker she met while in prison, then moved to Tijuana, Mexico.