Ex-Scouts assistant denies raping child

TACOMA – A former assistant Boy Scouts leader accused of raping a child who was a family friend has pleaded not guilty.

Price Nick Miller Jr., 59, entered the plea Friday to charges of child rape and child molestation filed in Pierce County Superior Court.

The accused was being held on $1 million bail. If he makes bail, Judge John Hickman ordered Miller to have no contact with children.

Miller, who is married and has three children in high school and college, is a retired Gig Harbor businessman and a volunteer firefighter. Deputy Prosecutor Mary Robnett charged him with two counts of first-degree child rape, one count of second-degree child rape, two counts of third-degree child rape and two counts of first-degree child molestation in the teen’s case. The boy, now 15, was not a Scout.

The charges were filed after a teenage family friend told a counselor that Miller had sexually abused him for several years. Investigators are looking into Miller’s past.

“We’re putting his picture out there because, being involved in scouting, he’s in a trusted position,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. “He has access to kids, and were concerned about it. We want to know whether there are any other victims.”

Miller was an assistant scoutmaster for three years, said Douglas Dillow, executive of the Pacific Harbors Council of the Boy Scouts of America. His membership was revoked when the organization learned of his arrest Friday.

Dillow said the Boy Scouts has worked for years to combat child abuse, requiring new leaders to go through a background check and an application review process. He said he could not confirm that Miller had undergone a background check.

Randy Unruh, scoutmaster of Troop 47 in Fircrest, defended Miller to The News Tribune of Tacoma, saying, “He’s not the monster that they’re saying he is.”

Unruh, a former Washington State Patrol detective who works for the state Public Disclosure Commission, said he once met the boy Miller is accused of assaulting. The boy’s father was not part of his life, Unruh said.

“We thought he was just being a mentor and a father figure,” Unruh said.