WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville | A local lawyer deals with legal problems of her own

A local lawyer deals with legal problems of her own

A love triangle has spilled into the streets of Vinton involving two lawyers and a paralegal.

It's a public spat playing out amid claims of stalking, assault, threatening phone calls and a cat fight in the middle of the street.

Ann Marie Miller just got out of jail on bond, having spent the last two nights accused of felony breaking and entering and assault.

Miller says she has more than 700 active cases, once actively promoting her practice specializing in Bankruptcy law.

Monday night she went to Jeff Kessler's home on Shelbourne Avenue, not expecting to encounter Jennifer Kelley.

Kelley says Miller assaulted her, forcing her way inside.

"I don't know why she has behaved innapropriately. I personally would someday like to be friends with her someday again. I don't see that happening," says Jeff Kessler.

Ann Marie Miller and Jeff Kessler are former partners, law partners and partners in love.

The relationship soured in May, the day Miller learned Kessler had not only been seeing someone else, he'd married Kelley.

The day of the first fight, May 21st, Cyndi Baker had a ringside seat for the spat right outside Cyndi's shop on East Lee Avenue.

Kelley had just broken the news to Miller that she and Kessler were engaged to be married.

"When she said that, Ann Marie got very agitated and tried to go after her," says witness Cyndi Baker.

Kessler and Kelley had actually tied the knot a month earlier in a civil ceremony in Fincastle.

Vinton police took statements from the two women, and let them go.

"I thought her and her boyfriend got into a fight. That's actually what I thought to begin with. I said, 'Did he assault her,' she said 'No, that girl assaulted me," says witness Jerry Johnson.

The resulting disorderly conduct charge was due to be heard in court next week, but another more serious incident arose when Miller showed up at Kessler's home this week.

Miller now believes Kessler and his wife sabotaged her law practice.

There are numerous complaints piling up against her with the State Bar, cases she says Kessler let lapse.