Rufus Miller was close with his daughter Ruvette. He lived in Florida and she stayed with her mother in Maryland, but once or twice a week they found time to chat.
But a little more than a year ago, Miller got a call from a bank saying he owed more than $3,400 for a credit card he never opened.
Ruvette, 36, pleaded guilty Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court to setting up the account, running up the bill and stealing his identity to do it.
“I don?t have the slightest idea,” Rufus Miller said Monday from Jacksonville, when asked why Ruvette would open a Visa account without permission in his name. “It was heart-breaking.”
Rufus Miller called Baltimore County police in April 2005 reporting that his identity was stolen. His name and his daughter?s were on the Chase Bank credit card account, charging documents say, and the listed address was in the Woodlawn area.
Checking financial and state databases and Chase records, a detective pieced together what happened: Ruvette Miller applied for the account on Aug. 2, 2004, over the Internet and requested two cards, one bearing her father?s name and one with hers.
She activated them on Aug. 10 and started ringing up charges the same day, spending $86.62 at a Wal-Mart in Columbia. All told, she spent $2,484.34 over the next two weeks, making purchases at Shoe City, a Comfort Inn and a Target store, according to court documents.
When police walked into the Pikesville apartment rental agency where she worked, she reportedly asked, “This is about the thing with my father, right?”
Ruvette Miller was sentenced Monday to two years? probation and ordered to pay Chase for the outstanding account.
Rufus said he plans to buy a new house once his attorney clears things up with his credit. And someday, he figures, he?ll talk to his daughter again. “I forgive her, but I won?t trust her like that,” he said.
