Good afternoon. My name is Jacob Abuelhawa and I am the defense attorney for Abby Lee Miller. In the case that the prosecutor has presented to you, there is insufficient evidence to prove guilt. Members of the jury, as many of you may know, Abby Lee Miller has starred on a reality show called Dance Moms for the past 7 years. Over those 7 years, she has raised, taught, and influenced kids that she has been teaching since they were 2 years old. If Mrs. Miller were convicted of 20 counts of fraud, her kids would be losing their dance teacher. She was forced to leave Dance Moms because she was manipulated and disrespected. She had no control over what went on during the show and was personified as a horrible and cruel person towards the kids and their moms. …show more content…
If there were sufficient evidence to back up the prosecutor’s claims, then Mrs. Miller would already be in jail. My conclusion from the case presented is that Miller was underpaid and that she claimed all of the income that she made during the years in question. Before her job in reality television, Miller had no prior experience with the amount of money that she started to make. A couple years before the show started, Miller filed for bankruptcy when she was in a bad spot in her life during these years. When the economy was down, keeping up with all of her bills became extremely difficult. Keep in mind, we’ve all made mistakes in our lives that we can’t go back and fix. During the period of time when Miller was alleged to have committed fraud, she ran a dance studio in Pittsburgh, and opened up a new studio in California. Miss Miller’s expenses increased significantly due to the higher costs associated with having a studio in California versus the amount of money it takes to run a studio in Pittsburgh. Although her income appeared to be higher, most of the profits were used to offset the increased expenses. She counted on her