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ST. GEORGE — A St. George man was charged Monday with nine misdemeanors after police say he stripped naked on the lawn of a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse, then entered the church during Sunday services.
Jeremy David Miller, 40, drove his Jeep onto the lawn of a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 540 N. Westridge Drive about 9:45 a.m. Sunday. He got out of his vehicle wearing only his underwear, then took it off and began to pull out items from the back of his Jeep and scatter them on the church lawn while naked, according to charging documents filed in 5th District Court.
Miller went inside the church, where about 100 worshippers were, then slammed a child's car seat onto a table, knocking the sacrament trays and water to the floor, the charges state. Dispatchers received multiple calls about the disturbance and reported hearing the man shouting in the background of the calls. Some callers said "they were terrified there was about to be a shooting at the church."
The man left prior to officers arriving and left tire marks on the lawn, police say. He was located shortly at a nearby home that he shares with his mother.
"Officers knocked on the door of the residence. Jeremy exited the house shouting and cursing at the officers," the court documents state. After the man was arrested, he "continued to shout, curse and struggle against officers until handcuffs were applied."
Miller was booked into the Washington County Jail and charged Monday with five counts of lewdness involving a child and one count of assault on a police officer, class A misdemeanors; criminal mischief and failure to stop at the command of law enforcement, class B misdemeanors; and disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor.
Early last month, police responding to reports of a psychiatric male arrested Miller after he allegedly assaulted police officers trying to arrest him. Police say he was lighting fireworks from his front porch and the sparks were hitting the house's wooden awning and nearby bushes.
Miller's mother told police she fears for her safety and said her son "suffers from multiple mental health issues and has been becoming worse for about two months," charging documents state.
He was charged in that case with criminal mischief, a third-degree felony, assault on a peace officer, a class A misdemeanor, and unclassified fireworks, a class B misdemeanor.
On June 14, Miller was charged with assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony, in a separate case after attacking a sleeping fellow jail cellmate "because he was sick of cleaning up after all of them," court documents say.
