Witness Tuesday morning: Hours before taking the oath as Salt Lake County's new district attorney, Miller is investigating her 10-year-old son's claims that he has no school that day.

She whips out her laptop, punches at the keys and waits for Jordan School District's calendar to pop up. Her son slumps against the kitchen counter, awaiting the verdict.

At last, it comes: Sorry, Cameron, you will be going to class.

"You have a book report due that you didn't get done," Miller tells her fourth-grader, revealing his motive for skipping school. Her sentence: No computer games until the homework is finished.

But class can wait an hour or two. First, all the Millers - Lohra, her husband, Lorenzo, and their four kids - must caravan from their South Jordan home to attend her swearing-in at the County Government Center.

It's a big day for Miller - her first at a new job where she will oversee 219 employees and a $19 million budget. It's also a landmark day for Salt Lake County as Miller becomes the first woman to take charge as the top elected prosecutor.

A Republican, she replaces Democrat David Yocom, who is retiring after four terms.

Miller - who argued in her campaign against Democrat Sim Gill that the county's prosecution office is broken - plans to shake up things in the male-dominated office. She hopes to build communication and trust between law-enforcement agencies and county prosecutors, improve the use of technology and data tracking, and find ways to retain young prosecutors, especially mothers who leave for jobs that have more flexible hours.

Although her predecessor did not allow attorneys to job share or work part time, Miller plans to create new policies. She also is open to employees choosing variable start and end times or working four-day weeks.

"If we can do it and make it work, it will be great for the office," says Dahnelle Burton-Lee, tapped by Miller to be chief deputy.

Miller herself is an example for working parents.

"She balances her family and professional life so amazingly," Burton-Lee says. "It's a wonderful statement to women everywhere: You can do it."

Before taking the oath, Miller tends to some housekeeping items. She proofreads her new stationery. She surveys her new digs. She accepts her new key. All the while, Cameron snoozes on her office couch.

Miller is a trailblazer of sorts in a county office where male attorneys outnumber women by nearly 2 to 1. The new D.A. says she is grateful to the pioneering women who preceded her and made female attorneys part of the mainstream, and to her mother for pushing her.

When Miller, the oldest of seven children, dreamed of being a nurse, her mother asked: Why not a doctor?

"I grew up my entire life with my mother challenging me on those statements and never letting me think I couldn't do what I wanted to do."

But Miller's administrative assistant, campaign adviser and spokeswoman Donna Sparks Williams is quick to emphasize that Miller's D.A. duties are about "good prosecution, not female prosecution."

After Miller is sworn in with other newly elected county officials, her mother, Marilee Flynn, watches her daughter with teary eyes.

"I'm proud of her," says Flynn, visiting from Arizona. "She worked hard for it, and she'll bring a lot of good to the office. I'm a little scared for her, too."

Miller's oldest child, 19-year-old Steven, congratulates his mom and leans in to ask her an important question.

Can the kids skip school and go snowboarding?

Her answer: No way - and no plea bargains, either.

rwinters@sltrib.com