Palm Beach Gardens Council candidate’s arrest history includes domestic battery, two DUIs

Earlier this week, Florida Politics reported on how Palm Beach Gardens Council candidate Chuck Millar narrowly avoided a restraining order for harassing and demeaning an ex-girlfriend who dumped him by text.

That happened in 2018, and aside from a few minor traffic issues — speeding, failure to wear a seatbelt — his record is otherwise clean in Palm Beach County.

The same can’t be said for Palm Beach’s northern neighbor, Martin County. Over the course of eight years while living there, Millar racked up a troubling series of criminal arrests, including a pair of DUI accidents where a child was in the car and a domestic battery incident that prompted his wife to file for divorce.

Florida Politics contacted Millar on Friday to discuss these charges. In an interview the day before about the restraining order incident, he said he’s since addressed his emotional issues in therapy and is a better person for it.

Let’s hope so.

Millar was first arrested for drunk driving in Martin County on Aug. 26, 2004. He was 44 at the time. He pleaded no contest to a first-degree misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence with an under-18 passenger and causing property damage due to an accident.

The arrest affidavit said Millar admitted to rear-ending another vehicle “while reaching for his son’s sippy cup in the back seat.” Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Vito Fruggiero noted that the boy was secured in a child restraint.

Millar, who was driving with a suspended license due to unpaid traffic fines, failed a field sobriety test. He then refused a breathalyzer test, but was not charged later for doing so.

Fruggiero placed Millar under arrest, but agreed to wait until Millar’s then-wife, Carol, came for the boy.

Four-and-a-half years later, on May 16, 2009, Martin Sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic disturbance call at Millar’s home. They arrived at about 3 p.m., finding Millar visibly intoxicated. The arresting officer wrote that Millar “got into an altercation, which then became physical.”

Carol said in a witness statement that Millar grew enraged after she asked him to help her mow the lawn. She said he pursued her through the house and into the backyard, where he “continued to yell and berate me … in front of everyone.”

After she told him she had reached her limit and intended to divorce him, he began gathering her belongings and throwing them out of the house, demanding she leave immediately.

Carol said that at some point, Millar pushed her, and she called Millar’s mother for help. The arrest affidavit said, Millar “did actually and intentionally grab, push and throw the victim against her will.”

Millar pleaded no contest to one first-degree misdemeanor count of battery. He received one year’s probation, agreed to no contact with Carol, completed a batterer’s intervention program and paid a series of fines.

Carol filed for divorce on July 9, 2009, the proceedings of which went on for three years. She told Judge David Harper in a letter that she could no “longer be an enabler and let this violent alcoholic verbally abuse and control my life and (redacted; likely “child’s”) life.”

“God willing with the help of counselor’s (sic), church and family he will get the help he needs to recover and become a reliable and sober (redacted; likely “father”),” she wrote.

Millar caught another DUI, again with a child in the car and after rear-ending another vehicle, on June 6, 2011.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper K.J. Wallace arrived at the scene at midnight to find Millar — who was 50 at the time — unable to stand straight or “put together complete sentences.” Wallace noted Millar had bloodshot, watery eyes and reeked of alcohol.

Again, Millar agreed to a field sobriety test and failed it. He later declined to take a breath, blood or urine test, telling Wallace, “You’re off the hook, man, but I don’t want that.”

Wallace arrested Millar and left the car to Millar’s mother, who was at the scene. The deputy’s arrest report included no mention of an underage passenger, but amended information added to the case in 2011 does.

Millar again pleaded no contest to a first-degree misdemeanor count of driving under the influence with a passenger under the age of 18 and property damage. He did the same for a first-degree misdemeanor charge of refusing to submit a breath, blood or urine test.

At Judge Darren Steele’s orders, Millar completed a month-long therapy program at the Palm Beach Institute addiction treatment facility in West Palm Beach. He also attended a DUI school and victim impact panel.

Steele also sentenced Millar to a month in jail and 12 months of probation, during which he was ordered to consume no alcohol. He also had to pay a fine and additional court fees, investigatory costs and install an interlock device on his vehicle.

On June 11, 2012, Millar was found to have broken his parole for not paying his fines and legal fees. His probation officer ordered Millar to complete 188 hours of community service instead of paying the fines.

His probation ended without issue five and a half months later.

Millar stayed out of trouble, at least in Martin or Palm Beach counties, for almost six years until a woman he’d been dating ended things, citing his volatile temper. In the weeks that followed, he sent her a barrage of unsettling texts and emails until she sought legal action.

More on that here.

A land use, zoning, planning, and real estate research professional, Millar switched his voter registration from Democrat to Republican in 2016, according to state records. He faces 47-year-old Republican firefighter John Kemp for the City Council’s Group 4 seat.

The Palm Beach Gardens election is on March 11. In the race, incumbent Commissioner Marcie Tinsley and her lone challenger, John “Scott” Gilow, are also on the ballot.

Post Views: 0