Rape suspect listed as sex offender

A Wilkes-Barre man arrested Thursday by Fairview Township police on charges he sexually assaulted a woman in November is listed as a registered sex offender with state police.

Bruce Wayne Miller, 31, of Hillside Street, served eight years and four months, according to the state Department of Corrections, of a 5-to-10 year sentence imposed by a Luzerne County judge in February 1996.

Miller, then 19, had pleaded no contest to two 1993 rapes of a 12-year-old girl in Hunlock Township and a 22-year-old woman in Wilkes-Barre.

Miller raped the two females a month apart and both at knifepoint, according to The Times Leader archives.

Miller was released from state prison on June 25, 2004, and was ordered under the state’s Megan’s Law to register his address with state police for 10 years.

Fairview Township police arrested Miller on Thursday after a woman claimed he raped her inside her Mountain Top home on Nov. 17. He was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and sexual assault.

Miller was released from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility after posting $15,000 bail on Thursday.

According to the criminal complaint filed by Detective Sgt. Phillip Holbrook and officers John Robshaw and Kevin Stahley:

The woman claimed Miller arrived at her home and the two went to Lispi’s Lounge in Plains Township where they drank beer with friends. She said Miller gave her three Oxycontin tablets that she ingested.

After leaving the lounge at 2 a.m., the two ate at a Wilkes-Barre Township restaurant and stopped at a department store where she purchased a few items. Miller drove the woman home and the two sat on separate couches.

The woman said she told Miller to leave because she wanted to go to bed. He refused, saying he was too drunk to drive.

Miller pulled the woman onto the floor, where she claimed he punched her before and after he sexually assaulted her, the criminal complaint says.

Police said Miller left behind evidence on the carpet, in a trash can and on the woman’s clothing.

Miller denied he gave the woman any prescription medications and said the sex was consensual. He claimed she helped moved a table before they had sex. He also claimed they both fell asleep after having sex.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13 in Central Court.