Texas AG Commissioner Under Fire For Possibly Billing Taxpayers For 'Jesus Shot'

AUSTIN, TX -- The Texas Agriculture Commissioner is reimbursing taxpayers $1,120 for a recent trip to Oklahoma where he may taken a medical treatment dubbed the “Jesus Shot,” a newspaper reports.

Sid Miller told the Houston Chronicle on Friday hat he made the February trip to neighboring Oklahoma on official government business, meeting to discuss issues both states share. His staff even posted a picture of Miller meeting with Oklahoma lawmakers.

But the lawmakers from the neighboring state said Miller was not invited, instead briefly pulling them aside for an impromptu, unscheduled meet. The Chronicle reports that Miller was able to schedule a meeting with his agriculture commissioner counterpart in Oklahoma, but then didn’t show up.

Miller may have tipped off the real reason for his trip: To receive a pain treatment known as the “Jesus Shot” as he told one of the lawmakers with whom he spontaneously visited. The Chronicle describes the treatment as controversial but legal, administered by a single Oklahoma-area doctor who swears it relieves pain forever.

Hence, presumably, the reference to the healing powers of Jesus inherent to the supposed miracle serum.

According to the news and information website Ryot and other media reports, the injection is administered by a man known in Oklahoma as "Dr. Mike," who charges up to $300 per injection. The new and information website Ryot and other media outlets say the doctor's real name is John Michael Lonergan.

in 2005 Lonergan had his medical license revoked in Ohio because he was convicted of eight felony counts of tax evasion, mail fraud, and healthcare fraud, the website reports.

Asked if he got the “Jesus Shot” during his Oklahoma outing, Miller declined to elaborate. But in the wake of the controversy, he’s now reimbursing taxpayers the $1,120 tab for airfare and a rental car.

By noon on Friday, Miller’s spokeswoman Lucy Nashed felt compelled to issue a more amplified statement.

“Commissioner Miller regularly travels across the country and around the world to promote Texas agriculture,” she wrote. “This was an official trip for the commissioner to meet with the Agriculture Commissioner of Oklahoma. Although that meeting fell through, he also met with lawmakers while there to discuss a number of agricultural issues, including water concerns, feral hog eradication and the BLM land grab along the Red River.”

She said the reimbursement to taxpayers was done out of “...an abundance of caution…” without alluding to the Jesus Shot.

So did he take the Jesus Shot while in Oklahoma or not? No comment, either from the spokeswoman or the agency itself: “He doesn’t discuss his personal medical history, and nor does TDA,” Nashed said plainly.

Whether or not he underwent the controversial treatment -- something he's acknowledged in the past -- the incident is yielding some measure of glee among Miller's detractors, including those as far away as New York.

The New York Daily News identifies him in its headline in its "Jesus Shot" story by name, but as a "hateful Texas official." In the first paragraph of their story, he's further described as "...a xenophobic, anti-Muslim Texas official."

The source of detractors' ire stems from MIller's anti-Muslim Facebook post from last year that made national headlines.

Miller was elected to his current post in 2014, succeeding two-term commissioner Todd Staples in a general election. He previously served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013, representing District 59 in Central Texas.

>>> Photo of Miller via the Texas Department of Agriculture website