The head of the Florida Attorney General’s Ethics Bureau, which prosecutes cases before the ethics commission, quit abruptly last month after being confronted with evidence she misused her position to improperly query Florida’s Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle database.
Elizabeth “Buff” Miller, now a former chief assistant attorney general, was looking to obtain information about a defendant in a 2011 civil lawsuit in which Miller was the plaintiff’s attorney, according to a report of an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office of Inspector General.
The 11-page report, released in response to Florida Bulldog’s public records request, cites a half-dozen violations of various “laws, rules, regulations or policies” by Miller for what it says was a “non-business-related query.” It also says, “Any unauthorized query of DAVID [Driver and Vehicle Information Database] could constitute a violation of section 119.0712(2) of the Florida Statutes and a violation of the Driver Privacy Protection Act [DPPA] which prohibit release of personal information except as otherwise specifically permitted within the Act.”
The defendant, a woman, was not identified in the report, and what the 2011 case was about were not made public. The report says Miller admitted what she did but did not discuss her motive.
The report does not say whether any official action against Miller is contemplated. Her annual salary was $120,000 and her most recent job evaluation rated her performance as “commendable.”
Miller is perhaps most well-known for successfully prosecuting Andrew Gillum, the former Democratic Tallahassee mayor who lost to Ron DeSantis in the 2018 race for governor, for accepting a gift from a lobbyist. She declined to comment. But her husband, George Miller, said Buff Miller made the query as part of her research for work.