DENVER – The Cheyenne County Sheriff was drunk and had pushed his wife against a wall the night of his arrest, according to an affidavit in the case which revealed more details about what led up to his arrest last week.
Sheriff Jeff Miller, 52, who was arrested Sept. 24 on charges of domestic violence, harassment (strike, shove, kick) and for driving under the influence, turned himself in to his county’s sheriff’s office late Friday night after an incident involving his wife and two of the couple’s friends.
The affidavit states the sheriff’s wife had been drinking that night at Cheyenne Wells and that she was too intoxicated to drive back home, so a female friend drove the victim’s vehicle to the home of a male friend, not too far away from where the victim and the sheriff lived.
At some point, all three of them eventually drove back to the home of the victim where Sheriff Miller was reportedly waiting in front of his patrol car.
The witnesses told deputies Miller then walked up to his wife and slapped a beer and a box of food she was carrying from out of her hands. Documents show the victim’s friends then walked back home and at some point, the victim drove back to her male friend’s home, with the sheriff following her in his patrol vehicle.
Arresting documents show the sheriff reportedly yelled at his wife and then drove back home, before coming back to the male friend’s home where he reportedly popped the hood on his wife’s car open to disable the vehicle.
At that point, the affidavit states, the victim and her two friends then went outside. When the victim went to speak to the sheriff, Miller then reportedly choked her and pushed her about ten feet into the side wall of her male friend’s home telling her, “you’re ruining this marriage.”
It was at this point that the victim’s male friend confronted the sheriff, telling him to get off his property. The sheriff complied by walking out into the street before telling him to “come out to the street to fight,” according to the arresting documents.
The victim’s female friend then called police and the sheriff left the scene.
During his interview about what happened that night, Sheriff Miller told deputies his wife has had a drinking problem for the past five to six months and that they “were working through the problem together.”
The sheriff, who deputies noted in the affidavit smelled of alcohol and had glassy eyes, said he started drinking when he got home because “he feels ___ is cheating on him,” the affidavit states. Miller told deputies he had drank six beers that evening before the events that led up to this arrest.
Miller told deputies he did not remember grabbing his wife by the neck before allegedly pushing her against the outside wall of a home.
The affidavit shows deputies then performed sobriety tests on the sheriff, which he failed, before he was booked into the Kit Carson County Jail.