ORANGE PARK – The manager of an Orange Park area pizzeria faces felony charges for having cancelled his business’ workers’ compensation insurance policy at least two times in the past five years.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Terry Lee Miller, 40, on June 26 using an arrest warrant procured by the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Workers’ Compensation Compliance Division.

The investigation began on November 9, 2016 when state investigator Scott Erickson conducted a compliance check at Miller’s place of employment, The Infield Pizzeria and Sports Bar at 330 College Dr. According to documents filed with the Florida Division of Corporations, Miller is listed as a principal with the pizzeria’s parent company, Hoosiermama LLC.

According to the warrant, Erickson found – through a state computer search – that The Infield had been functioning without workers’ compensation insurance since September 23, 2016. Workers’ compensation insurance is required to cover a company’s employees who may become injured on the job and it is a state requirement for businesses to carry.

Erickson said he spoke with Miller and The Infield’s owner, Cassandra Mantooth, about the violation and issued what’s called a Business Records Request, “which requires the business to comply within 10-business days, with the date range of August 9, 2016 through November 8, 2016, in order to establish whether or not workers’ compensation coverage was in place and how many employees work for the company,” states the warrant.

Erickson said Miller failed to comply with the request and on December 6, 2016, the state issued the restaurant a stop work order. However, a few weeks later, on January 20, 2017, Erickson returned to the restaurant only to find it was still operating, which led Erickson to issue a civil “Working in Violation Notice.”

The state resumed the investigation on March 21 this year when a second inspector, Deryck Gallegos made a follow-up inspection at the pizzeria. He said Miller showed him a policy for workers’ compensation insurance he had procured, however, Gallegos said Miller’s policy “was inconsistent with what was on file with the State of Florida.”

Further investigation found that one of Miller’s worker’s compensation policies was cancelled on November 5, 2016 “for non-renewal,” while a second policy was cancelled on Feb. 26 for non-payment.

Miller is free from the Clay County Jail on bond and faces one count of workers’ compensation fraud, second violation within five years.