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Why Did Abby Lee Miller Go to Prison?

Why Did Abby Lee Miller Go to Prison? In this article, we have listed everything you need to know about Abby Lee Miller and why she was sent to jail.

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Why Did Abby Lee Miller Go to Prison?
Why Did Abby Lee Miller Go to Prison?

If you are one for the reality television series, you’ve probably heard about Dance Moms (considering it went on for eight seasons with a whopping 224 episodes, though on second thought, that's common for reality tv). One of the most prominent figures that anyone who’s ever watched Dance Moms remembers is Abby Lee Miller. Even if you haven’t watched it, you might have heard about Miller.

And if by chance, you have heard of her, you might also have come across the story of her going to jail. Indeed, she did go to jail for a year and a day (oddly specific, isn’t it?). On June 27, 2016, Miller pleaded guilty to felony bankruptcy fraud and was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison.

Table of content:

Who is Abby Lee Miller?

Abigale Lee Miller, otherwise called Abby Lee Miller, is an American dance instructor, choreographer, and reality television personality. She is the founder of the Abby Lee Dance Company, which made recurring appearances on the reality television series Dance Moms for eight seasons.

Abby was born on 21st September 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Maryen Lorrain Miller (1927 - 2014) was a dance teacher, and her father, George Lamar Miller (1927 - 2000) was a dance studio owner.

Miller’s childhood revolved around dance. She grew up in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb, studying under her mother's guidance at the Maryen Lorrain Dance Studio.

In 1980, at the age of 14, Miller was given the responsibility of choreographing and coaching one of her mother's dance competition teams. Miller eventually took over the studio, renaming it Reign Dance Productions in 1995.

Miller on Reality TV

Miller was certified by Dance Masters of America (DMA) in 1986. She then became a member of Dance Masters of Pennsylvania Chapter #10. However, her membership was terminated in February 2012, with DMA claiming Miller's reality-TV show Dance Moms was "a total misrepresentation of our dance educators and their students and is detrimental to the dance profession."

In 2011, Miller started appearing in the Lifetime reality-TV show Dance Moms where she taught dance for many years. Miller constantly appeared on the show for seven seasons through October 2017.

In 2015, Miller established a new studio set up in Los Angeles called ALDC LA. In March 2017, Miller announced she had quit Dance Moms. In July 2018, Miller announced her return for season 8 of the series. Hence, a new season called Dance Moms: Resurrection premiered on June 4, 2019, on Lifetime.

In 2016, Miller appeared on The Eric Andre Show's season 4 premiere which is a surreal sketch comedy television series.

Miller announced on Instagram on May 4, 2020, that she will finally be parting ways with Dance Moms and Lifetime after nine years.

On 3rd December 2010, Miller filed for bankruptcy after owing more than $400,000 in back taxes to the IRS. However, soon afterward, she was hired by Dance Moms. The filming began on 6th April 2011. Episodes began airing in July 2011, after which Miller's financial situation improved considerably.

Miller seemed to have come across numerous legal problems in 2014. One of the dancers on Dance Moms sued Miller, charging for assault. The suit further claims that the show's producers encourage a violent and combative atmosphere on the show as a means to attract viewers.

A $5 million lawsuit was filed against Collins Avenue Entertainment for staging disagreements that ended in a fight between Kelly Hyland and Abby Lee Miller. Paige Hyland also filed an emotional distress lawsuit against Miller. However, the claims were later dropped on the emotional distress lawsuit.

Prison Sentence For Abby Lee Miller

On 13th October 2015, Miller was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for fraud. She allegedly created a secret bank account between 2012 and 2013 and used it to hide income from masterclasses, TV deals, and merchandise sales.

In addition, she failed to file the required monthly reports of income with the bankruptcy court for 13 months. She was indicted for bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declarations in hiding of around $755,000. If found guilty, she could have faced a fine of $250,000 for each of the 20 counts she was arraigned for (collectively $5,000,000) and five years in prison. However, she did not plead guilty in November 2015.

By February 2016, this case was delayed a fifth time. Shortly after charges were laid against her, she was impeached with customs fraud relating to undeclared cash from the Dance Moms Australia master class tour. Miller went on to reach a deal with the IRS criminal investigators to enter a guilty plea to reduced charges on 27th June 2016.

Sentencing was originally set for 11th October 2016. But it was postponed three times: first to 20th January 2017, then to 24th February 2017, and finally to 8th May 2017.

On 9th May 2017, after a two-day hearing, Miller was sentenced to federal prison for one year and a day, followed by two years of supervised release. Miller also had to pay a $40,000 fine and a $120,000 judgment and gave a DNA sample relating to her felony charge.

On 12th July 2017, Miller was incarcerated at the Victorville Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville, California, to begin serving her prison sentence.

On 27th March 2018, Miller was transferred to a Long Beach, California halfway house to complete her sentence. She received time off for her good behavior and afterward, was released on the 25th of May that same year.

The aftermath of Prison Sentence:

Miller has never been married and does not have any children. In April 2018, she was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma after spinal surgery. It is a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer, rather uncommon in adults but curable 90% of the time. In September of the same year, Miller's lymphoma went into remission and she started physical therapy to relearn how to walk. She now uses a wheelchair.

Miller spoke about her cancer and about the time she walked to the hospital for the last time.

She describes the day by saying she was “in horrible pain” when she made it to the doctor’s office and then “across the street to a hospital for a sedated MRI”.

She continued to describe her experience on Friday, the 13th, 2018. She says that techs had to remove her from the MRI machine after 15 minutes because her “arms & legs were flailing about uncontrollably!”. Her health declined rapidly after that.

“I was admitted and then ignored,” Miller sounded disheartened.

She says that the next few hours that followed were a near-death experience. Her blood pressure dropped to 23 over 17, her kidneys started to fail and she was paralyzed all the way down her neck.

“It was too late to transfer me…”, she says that at the time she felt emergency surgery needed to be performed immediately.

“I have never walked on my own again”, she ended her statement.

She then continued to announce a documentary about her health conditions. She calls it “befitting” that she completes the final footage of the documentary to mark the anniversary of all that happened to her one year prior.

She ended on a thankful note saying, “Thank you all for your continued prayers and support🙏🏼”.

How many years was Abby Lee Miller sentenced to prison?

Abby Lee Miller was sentenced to 365 days in prison.

“You weren’t truthful, even when you knew you were supposed to tell everything, you still weren’t truthful,”

These were the words of the Judge when she was sentenced to prison for 365 days.

The judge told her the following thing while announcing the prison time to Abby Lee Miler:

"Somehow you got caught up in the world of fame and you lost your moral compass,"

Reportedly, Ellen Degeneres is making a movie about Dance Moms in 2016.
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