Transcript of 12) ‘How Selfish And Ungodly’: Does JP Miller's Own Evidence Work Against Him?

I spend most of my life following paper trails, so believe me when I say that I have done the math on my closet. And the pieces that I actually wear on repeat? They are all from Quince. Quince makes elevated everyday essentials from premium materials: Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and washable silk. And here's the part I really respect: they work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. You're paying for quality, not markup. It's not just apparel either. They bring the same approach to hotel-quality bedding, bath, and kitchen essentials. This fall, like last fall, my go-to will be my cashmere crew neck. I've reached for it basically every cool morning since it showed up, and nobody believes what I paid for it. Find the fall pieces you'll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com/coj. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's quince.com/coj. Hey, y'all. It's Mandy Matney. If you're listening to Coerced, you already know that Micah Francis Miller's story runs so much deeper than what the world saw on Netflix. This week on True Sunlight, Liz Farrell and I are breaking down what Death of the Pastor's Wife left out.

And trust me, it is a lot. Like JP's felon father, Reginald Wayne Miller, and how JP inherited the playbook from him. The manipulation, the lawsuit, the just keep preaching arrogance. Straight from his daddy. Plus, we talk about the 2 Jane Doe lawsuits that Netflix barely touched, and we tell you a whole lot about JP's ex-wife that Netflix left out. Remember, Justice for Micah is a movement. Not a moment. And the full story matters. So follow True Sunlight wherever you're listening right now, and check out episode 163, What Netflix Left Out of the Micah Frances Miller Story. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. This is Coerced: The Devotion and Death of Micah Frances Miller, a Luna Shark drop feed. My name is Maddy Matney. Journalists Liz Farrell, Beth Braden, and I have been reporting on Micah's story for more than 2 years now for the True Sunlight podcast. Coerced is a Luna Shark production made possible by producers Kate Thomas, Grace Hills, and David Moses. In our last episode, we opened JP Miller's own probate filings, the affidavit and the 65 exhibits he swore would prove that he was a loving husband. Instead, his own evidence showed us a 23-year-old bride recovering from surgery, a rushed secret marriage, and a 3-page manifesto telling Micah exactly who she was allowed to be.

This episode goes deeper into the most disturbing thread in these filings, Micah's medical story, and the question of who was actually writing it. You will hear the email that JP sent 11 days after their church wedding, calling Micah's desire to come off her brand new medication as selfish and ungodly. Then you will hear what Micah's own alleged medical records show. A young woman her clinicians repeatedly described as stable, happy, and not suicidal and who kept asking her providers over and over what exactly her diagnosis was. When Micah died, the medical examiner's report checked a box that said bipolar suicide attempt and noted that she had no primary care physician. No autopsy was performed, in part because of that history. This episode asks the question that hangs over everything, including JP's federal trial, which will hopefully go this fall. Where did that history come from? And who benefited from it? One note before we start: Micah's List, the document her attorney released after her death, alleged that JP declared Micah bipolar, forced her to take his own lithium prescription, and monitored whether she swallowed pills. JP denies all of it and he's never been charged with abusing Micah.

But what you're about to hear is his own evidence In his own words. This is from True Sunlight, episode 64, published August 28th, 2024.

JP provided a 7-page affidavit in the case along with around 65 individual exhibits. Let's just call those pieces of evidence, like he did in one of his early TikTok videos when he bizarrely promised he would be revealing hundreds of pieces of evidence to prove he didn't have anything to do with Micah's death. His basic argument in the affidavit is this: I was the best thing that ever happened to Micah. Micah's family is the worst, and that's why I deserve to be her personal representative for her estate. But as you all saw last week, in actuality, the exhibits seem to prove the opposite. In fact, the exhibits show us how JP's goal seemed to be to control Micah right out of the gate. Today we want to start with an email that JP sent to Micah just 11 days after their church wedding.

As a quick refresher, Micah and JP were privately married on November 7th, 2017. According to Micah's family and other sources, JP wanted Micah to get breast implants and insisted that they get quietly married so that she could move in with him and he could take care of her after the operation without having to worry about quote unquote Living in sin. Post-op care for breast augmentation is about 1 to 2 weeks depending on the person, by the way. So again, this seems to be a bit over the top, raising the question of whether JP wanted to hasten their marriage so Micah would have to rely solely on him during her recovery, so that she would be weakened and incapacitated during what turned out to be orientation to marriage with JP Miller. We all know at this point that JP seems to view marriage as something that elevates the capital H Husband and subjugates the wife. He views it as a contract that obligated Micah to serve him according to his interpretation of how God wanted her to behave in their marriage, right down to allegedly telling her that if she didn't perform to his sexual standards, that he was allowed to go outside their marriage to meet his needs.

JP denies all of this, by the way, and he says that it was Micah who wanted the implants before their big church wedding. Micah, who again was just 23 years old at the time, had her surgery on December 1st. According to court records and interviews, Micah appears to have experienced post-anesthetic psychosis, which is something that typically resolves itself within a few hours or days. According to JP, this surgery caused Micah to be diagnosed with, he says, bipolar and schizophrenia. It is important to note that in the 150 pages of documents, JP did not provide one single piece of evidence that shows actual proof of this sudden diagnosis. Again, there are a handful of exhibits that remain sealed at the request of Micah's family. It is not clear if those records would prove what JP is saying about Micah's diagnoses. We do, however, know that the unsealed exhibits we have seen make JP look even worse. We also know that a handful of random pages that appear to be from Micah's medical records were posted on TikTok. We're not going to go into those today though, except to say that they don't shed a lot of light on Micah's alleged diagnoses either.

Nor do they shed light on the timeline surrounding them. All of them, however, note that she was not suicidal. More than that, we have spoken to 2 different clinicians about bipolar diagnoses, and they both confirmed exactly what we thought. This diagnosis isn't one made on the fly. It's usually a diagnosis that comes after a clinician can see a few months of a patient's behavior and mood swings, including mania and depression. Which, speaking of, one of our sources pointed something out that is very important. Notice that JP never seems to talk about depressive episodes that Micah experienced, specifically in the month that she was allegedly diagnosed with bipolar in December 2017. He only ever references her alleged manic episodes, which again, we think is code for Micah is not worshiping me. That said, JP seems to have hopped to it when Micah's behavior, according to him, changed after the surgery. And depending on how you interpret the evidence, it either seems like he was simply a scared and ill-equipped husband trying to do his best with his wife's new diagnosis, or— and I think you know where we stand on this— He overreacted to Micah's medical scare, perhaps because Micah was showing signs of free will And he did not like that.

Or worse, and this is just a theory, by the way, perhaps this was a calculated effort on his part to break Micah down so that he could build her back up into a wife who would never question him and, more importantly, never leave him. So in between Micah's surgery and their church wedding on December 31st, 2017, it looks like their lives were in chaos. Micah had her surgery and then 2 weeks later, according to JP in a recent interview, one of Micah's implants hardened, which is an indication that she had a pretty serious infection. Around mid-month, JP brought Micah to the hospital and she was hospitalized for psychosis, according to JP. Again, he has provided no paperwork that we have seen that shows the reason that she was hospitalized that December. Instead, we have his references to that hospitalization around that time.

In his affidavit, JP, in an attempt to show the court that he was a loving husband who deserves to be in charge of Micah's estate, said he began attending support groups for people with family members who have mental illness. And as evidence of this, he included an email from March 6th, 2018 that was sent to Micah. It's not clear from who because it's redacted. The email included a forwarded message from February with details about this monthly meeting. Now, we are all for support groups. We both fully and personally know that mental illnesses can have profound effects on spouses and other family members. So there's no judgment there. But we do have to ask a question, a couple of them. Was this a fact-finding mission for JP? Was it a place to learn the lingo? And hear stories? Did he go to these meetings to gather examples? Sorry, we're assuming he went to these meetings because, again, as evidence of going to these meetings, he included an email advertisement rather than an affidavit from a group leader who witnessed him being there. If he went to these meetings, was he going to help Micah, or was he going because it further allowed him to catastrophize her health while appearing to be the desperate husband victimized by his crazy wife.

In the affidavit, he goes on to say that, quote, once again, I wrote her an email about the events happening while she was in the hospital. This email was from January 11th, 2018, which again is 5 weeks after her surgery and less than 2 weeks after their church wedding. So was she hospitalized once or twice? The timeline is kind of murky, right? How many times was she hospitalized from December 1st, 2017 through January 11th, 2018, because JP talks about it a lot in that short amount of time? Or is he talking about the same incident from mid-December, the same single incident stemming from her post-op complications? This is important because we've seen, in our opinion, JP cause and then weaponize Micah's hospitalizations against her, as evidenced by the February involuntary hospitalization That arose because, according to Micah, she had a panic attack. You remember how JP continued to bring up her hospitalization to Secretary of State Mark Hammond and to various dispatchers on 911. In this email, JP got straight to the point. Micah wasn't taking her lithium, and he was angry with her about this. When it comes to bipolar disorder, there is not an immediate perfect solution, according to sources in the medical field.

that we've spoken to. It can take time to understand how the disorder is manifesting and to get the right dosage and combination of medication. January 11th was about a month or so after Micah's apparent diagnosis. In his affidavit, JP writes that he gathered wisdom from professionals on how to care for Micah when she was in the hospital on December 22nd, 2017. I need you all to listen carefully to this email that he sent on January 11th, to these first few paragraphs of JP's email. And ask yourself, why would a husband ever want his allegedly recently diagnosed wife to be on lithium this much? Keep in mind, one of Micah's family's key accusations against JP has been that he would drug Micah, including allegedly giving her his own lithium. Also, how could JP be drawing any conclusions about what Micah was like when she was and wasn't on lithium when it had just been a few weeks? According to our sources, by the way, lithium is a rare drug to be prescribed to bipolar patients, especially so early on. And it takes weeks, even months for lithium to do its thing. We're told that when bipolar patients push back about not wanting to take their medications, licensed clinicians will typically work with the patient to build trust in the hopes that they will want to take medication, and they'll maybe prescribe them something different.

In other words, it's fairly common and not the end of the world like JP is making it out to be. Now here's David with the email.

Hey babe, every day you talk about how much you want to alter your medicine, come off your lithium or change the doses without approval from your doctor or psychiatrist. This is much more of a serious conversation than what you think it is. To be very honest, it actually angers me at how selfish and ungodly the desire for you to come off your medication actually is. You claim that you now have the knowledge to be able to handle yourself without medication or a lower dosage, when in fact you must not have the control to handle yourself on the medication. If you actually believe that you're better off without it or a lesser dosage. If you were in your right mind, if you were operating in the mind of Christ right now, and you had doctors, nurses, friends, family, spouse, coworkers all tell you that you should stay on your medication and you still want to come off, then something isn't right. Earlier today, I finally gave in, and I am willing to let you do whatever you want to in this area, just like I did with the dog that I agreed for you to get, even though I am the one who has to take care of him.

But as your husband, capital H, and as the one who suffered just as much as you through all this, I believe I have a right to share my heart. I hope to appeal to your integrity, your intelligence, and to your relationship with Jesus and his word.

Ah, speaking of Micah's relationship with Jesus, this letter is proof of JP weaponizing Micah's beliefs against her. As her pastor and her husband, JP conflates what Jesus wants with what he actually wants. And here he is saying point blank, Jesus will be mad at you if you don't take your lithium. Imagine hearing that from a man who you considered to be your spiritual advisor since you were 15 years old, and think about how confusing that would be at 23. Right after you married that man. Also notice that he dog-shamed her there. I mean, first, shut up, JP. Micah was still recovering at this point from the breast surgery in December that you allegedly wanted her to get. And not only that, she's had complications from that surgery, medical issues, and allegedly new diagnosis of a mental illness. She just got divorced and married. Twice, and she is 23 years old at this point. But second, can we talk about the part of the email that gives him away? He wasn't just writing this to Micah or for Micah. He was writing it for future readers. He was documenting things. That line about the dogs reads like a poorly written action movie where they try to cram in the hero's backstory in an awkward dialogue.

Anyway, JP clearly missed the sickness and in health part of his own vows, which he said less than 2 weeks before this email is sent, and which he said twice in the past 2 months. But think about this: bipolar was a brand new diagnosis for Micah. Again, allegedly. Like our sources have said, it doesn't seem likely that she would have been diagnosed so quickly. And despite the recent nature of the diagnosis, JP's email reads as if they have been married for years and he has finally decided that it's time to confront his spouse for the toll her years-long illness was taking on them as a couple. He doesn't seem like a newlywed at all. It should take years for this type of disappointment and resentment to build up. And yet here he is, a mere days since she was diagnosed. It honestly reads like an attempt to tame Micah. Now, I need all of us to take a collective deep breath before listening to this next part because it is— One of the most infuriating things I have ever read as a journalist. And again, how can JP make any of these conclusions at this point?

Here is David with JP's letter.

Pros and cons of being on medication.

1.

When you're off your medication or not on your medication, it costs us a lot of emotional hardship and pain. 2. When you were off your medication or not on your medication, we suffered a lot financially. 3. When you were off your medication or not on your medication, you were unaware of what reality was and what was really going on, regardless of what you thought. In other words, you were deceived. When you are off your medication, you are unable to function in the workplace. When you're off your medication, you are unable to determine what is normal and what is abnormal. When off your medication, you can't function in the area of your calling. Singing, leading worship. When off your medication, you don't sleep properly. When off your medication, you think that you are learning other languages and musical instruments, when in reality you were wasting time on things that didn't line up with your real life. When off your medication, you are totally fine with being in a mental facility. 10. When off your medication, you draw things and talk about things that nobody understands and that are pointless to your destiny, and you communicated those things in ways that were unhealthy.

Okay, so that was a lot, and I can feel the collective female rage building up. So let's pause again for a second and take a moment to scream all of the curse words that we need to. Whew, okay, we needed that. Now, let's dissect what is really happening here. The timeline is the most important piece of this, which brings us to a very important lesson in all of this: when being gaslit, focus on the facts that you know to be true. According to JP's own timeline, Micah only began showing signs of having a psychotic episode after her December 1st, 2017 surgery. This email was sent about 40 days after her surgery. So within those 40 days, according to JP, doctors, who JP doesn't ever name, diagnosed Micah with bipolar and told her that lithium was the best medicine for her. Micah allegedly went to a mental facility an unclear number of times, but it seems like it was only once, and again, we don't have any evidence of that stay. Then JP and Micah had their church wedding, and during all that, as she was recovering from major surgery, mind you, JP and/or the doctors that he speaks of were able to take enough day-to-day data that concluded For the rest of Micah's life, she would need lithium and JP to function.

Think about that for a minute. Think about all of the medications that you have been on in your life and how hard it is to determine if that medication is working. Think about all of the other factors that contribute to your mood, quality of sleep, ability to concentrate, And be productive at work, etc., etc. The context is the surgery and the stress, and the stress of your new husband trying really hard to convince you that you are bipolar and will need lithium and him for the rest of your life. But if JP is to be believed, Micah was one step away from being sent away like Rosemary Kennedy. I want you to think about what David just read again. And I want you to replace when you were off your medicine with when you don't listen to JP, and watch the truth appear. When you were not listening to JP, we suffered a lot financially. It caused a lot of emotional hardship. You couldn't sleep properly, function in the workplace, and you could not determine what is normal and what is abnormal. Scary, right? And we'll be right back.

I spend most of my life following paper trails, so believe me when I say that I have done the math on my closet, and the pieces that I actually wear on repeat, they are all from Quince. Quince makes elevated everyday essentials from premium materials: Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and washable silk. And here's the part I really respect: they work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. You're paying for quality, not markup. It's not just apparel either. They bring the same approach to hotel-quality bedding, bath, and kitchen essentials. This fall, like last fall, my go-to will be my cashmere crewneck. I've reached for it basically every cool morning since it showed up, and nobody believes what I paid for it. Find the fall pieces you'll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com/coj. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash C-O-J. You know me, I dig until I find the truth. And it turns out, that same instinct that drives my investigative journalism, it makes for a different, But pretty amazing new kind of travel show.

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Now again, notice how often he makes this about himself. It costs us emotional hardship. We suffer financially. Then the manipulation goes deeper. In JP's own email that he submitted himself to support his argument that he was a good husband who deserved to be in control of Micah's estate, he's telling his new wife that without medicine, her opinions, thoughts, and feelings are not valid. Notice he said that Micah was totally fine being in a mental facility. Well, maybe the mental facility was a relief compared to living with JP. Maybe she wanted to hear directly from professionals about what was happening to her. And again, was she even really in a mental facility or was she in the hospital? He makes it sound so ominous. Or was Micah maybe admitted to the hospital through the ER for the infection that she had and they placed her on the mental health floor because of the so-called mania she was experiencing, which sounds a lot like delirium caused by an infection and pain medication? Oh, also, in this diabolical list of JPs, he gets downright hurtful and insulting. When off medication, quote, you draw things and talk about things that nobody understands and that are pointless to your destiny, and you communicated those things in ways that were unhealthy.

And quote, you think that you are learning other languages and musical instruments when in reality you are wasting time on things that didn't line up with your real life. It sounds like maybe at this time 23-year-old Micah was discovering that there was more to life than JP and his church, and JP didn't like that she was thinking beyond him. Because let's not forget, just a year earlier, JP's church had brought in a prophet, and that prophet told Micah she was destined for great things, including that she too would be a prophet, that God would speak to her and through her. To help others. It's so incredibly diminishing for him to then circle back on her when she starts to explore what that might look like. Does it mean improving her musical skills to reach people through song? Could it mean learning new languages to reach more people? Are these the ideas that came out of her head when she was not guarded because of the pain medication? Okay, deep breaths, y'all, because this letter gets Worse! Next, he goes into the pros of being on medication. Here's David again.

1.

When you are on your medication, you gain weight. This can be controlled by being more disciplined in the area or what you eat rather than focusing on how much you eat.

2.

When you are on your medication, you feel lethargic. This can also be helped by what you eat, but in actuality, it may be a side effect of the medication, and we may have to deal with this like Jacob did with his limp.

I have to pause here because what the heck is this man talking about? And how dare JP comment on his wife's weight 1 month after breast surgery when you aren't even supposed to work out for at least 4 to 6 weeks? How dare he comment on her weight ever, but especially as she just started a new medication. I want to remind you that weight came up after Micah's death too, when JP said that Micah had allegedly lost £40 in the month leading up to her death and no one seemed to think that that was a problem. He told one interviewer that he never cared about her weight, he just wanted her to be healthy. In the meantime, he sure does seem like he weaponized comments about her body, no matter what size she was. Because in this email, it sounds like Micah was not convinced that she needed lithium long-term, and maybe she thought that she could get him off her back if she said the medicine is making me gain weight. Maybe she was thinking shallow JP Miller would be more concerned about having a heavier wife than a drugged one. And maybe that would make him listen to her about trying other options.

Nope, not JP, because again, it was another thing that he could use against her, another thing that he could criticize her about. You heard how JP mansplained to Micah how weight gain works, that this simply meant that she should try harder and work out more and eat healthier. Meaning gaining weight would be a sign of her failing. Okay, back to the email. JP then launches into a sermon about Jacob, Paul the Apostle, Moses, David, and Noah. He wrote, Noah was called to save humanity, but he had no friends. Which, in the context of coercive control, seems like he's laying down the foundation for isolation, one of the key components of this type of abuse. Here is David with JP's letter again.

God blessed Jacob tremendously, but he had to live with a limp. Paul the Apostle had an amazing influence and anointing, but he had a thorn in his flesh. Moses was called to lead millions, but he had a stutter that God didn't heal. David had prestige, power, wealth, but he battled depression. Noah was called to save humanity, but he had no friends. Sometimes God allows us to have a limp. A limp is something that reminds us how much we need to rely on Jesus. A limp doesn't prevent us from living a blessed life, but it does keep us humble and reminds us of our weakness. without daily time with Jesus. We all have a limp. It may not be the same as yours, but we all have one.

That was confusing because even though Mandy nor I are pastors, we do know that Moses, David, and Noah were definitely in the Old Testament. So we're not sure how Jesus could have helped them with their limps when he didn't exist yet. But anyway, maybe that's what they teach at JP's father's Bible college. JP continues, this time deploying shame as a manipulation tactic. Here's David.

It seems to be very selfish to want to come off of your medicine when examining the points above: sacrificing your passions, job, relationships, influence with non-believers slash coworkers, finances, and our time and energy to get you back on medicine. Because you don't like feeling lethargic and because you don't want to exercise self-control and discipline over what you eat throughout the day. So basically, you are so deceived that you are willing to bypass what every person in your life says is best and do what You want to do because you don't like the way you feel. Wouldn't the best thing we can do would be to: 1. Spend more time in prayer every day asking for Jesus to help. 2. Stay on your medication until altered by your doctor. 3. Eat healthy snacks all through the day when you feel the munchies. Carrots, water, vegetables, try oatmeal, etc.

Well, here he says the quiet part out loud. It is selfish of you, Micah, to disobey your husband. JP tells her that everything in her life will fall apart if she goes off this newly prescribed medicine, or allegedly newly prescribed, because again, there's no real official documentation that seems to show exactly what Micah's diagnosis was. at this time, or exactly what medication she was supposed to be on and when she was first prescribed it. And then, okay, the audacity of his advice: turn to Jesus, aka he means himself, stay on your medicine, and eat oatmeal. Try veggie trays. I don't know about you all, but there's something extra aggravating about JP giving Micah weight loss suggestions here. He's treating her like a petulant child, and he's totally setting her up to be the problem here. It's you. It's your lack of discipline that's the problem, not the medication. Then JP continues.

The very definition of being deceived is whenever authority, loved one, and spiritual overseer tells us one thing and we totally believe another. This is how atheists go to Hell. Capital H.

All right, whoa. So actually, surprise, that isn't the definition of deceive. Merriam-Webster defines it as to cause to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid. In order to be deceived, you have to be convinced that something that is false is actually true. Meanwhile, JP's definition of Micah being deceived— and let's face it, what he really means by that word is that she's stupid and naive for not believing him— he never includes anything about the truth, which Matters a whole lot. Remember last episode when we told you about his offensive 5-part email? Remember the part where he said, I can't imagine thinking that the sky is blue and having everyone around me tell me it's pink. That is his definition of Micah being deceived. He's telling Micah the sky is pink and she believes it's still blue. And he's saying that her thinking it's blue is a sign that she's sick. When in reality, and absent any other context like rain and sunsets and clouds, The sky is in fact blue. It is blue. Also, in our opinion, he is again weaponizing Micah's faith here to warn her against forming her own beliefs, ones that differ from his, and then equating it to being atheist and going to hell, which for her as a Christian would really resonate.

Now, Micah underwent a hellish 30 days at this point. And again, this is according to JP's own words. Imagine how you'd feel if your husband spoke to you this way after you had just endured so much physical and mental trauma, along with wedding planning. Okay, so let's wrap up this email from Atheist Hell.

At the end of my email, I have added 2 things. First, scripture and biblical points that prove a humble person will receive the instruction of much wiser people who are in authority. Your doctors, nurses, father, husband, boss, coworkers, church family, friends, all want you to stay medicated. Not to hurt you, but to help you and because they believe it is best for you. Second, the email I received from on the day that you had been taken to the ER.

A quick reminder, this is an email from December 15th, 2017 that we believe was sent to JP from his right-hand woman, Trisha Ross, and it contained nearly 4 pages of a seemingly nonsensical text message from Micah to, again, who we think to be Trisha. This text did seem bizarre, but when you break it down and add context, it seemed like Micah was still tethered to reality. At this same time is when, according to JP's TikTok interview, Micah became sick with what appears to have been a severe infection from her surgery. Also, notice that he says had to be taken to the ER. This is what we were saying earlier. Was Micah hospitalized because of a mental break with reality, or was she brought to the ER because of this infection? And hospitalized because of that? And what if it was there where they put her on medicine for bipolar? It is not clear, but here is what JP has to say about the bizarre text message. He wants Micah to read it.

After you have read this email in its entirety, if you still want to change your medication or stop taking it, I will love you the entire time. I am willing to go through the emotional pain, the financial burden, the relational distress, the time consumption, and the lack of integrity, all so you can stop feeling lethargic and have your way, under 2 conditions. 1. We tell your father, and we tell . I don't want to involve as she has too much going on in her life. I want to fill your father in because I believe you trust his judgment, and I would want to tell so that I have someone I can lean on if you have to be hospitalized again. If you have to be hospitalized, I don't want it to be my decision. I would want it to be your dad's, and you can promise me that you will not hold it against me.

So that was a real masterclass in manipulation, wasn't it? It's not, if you want to do this thing, I'll accept it. It's, if you want to keep hurting me, if you want to keep being a bad person, if you want to destroy everything, I'll accept it. He's not telling her, do this or else. Oh no, he's crafty. He phrased it all in a way that allows him to say, I left the decision up to Micah. I didn't force her to do anything. But in the meantime, his emails make it very clear that if she were to choose her way over his, that there would be tension in her marriage. There would be consequences for her. You can already see that in the short time since she was allegedly diagnosed, right? We've spent 2 episodes now talking about a single month of Micah's life, and you can see how much JP has jam-packed Over these few weeks with his full-court catastrophizing. Bottom line, the way he goes about all of this is villainously artful. Because again, and we have to keep saying this, they are newly married. This is a new alleged diagnosis. This is new medication.

And Micah is 23. He's given her no space for her to learn and adjust to. Living with him. He's given no time for her body and mind to heal from what just happened. Which, let's all pause once again about her chief concern here. According to this email, she doesn't like how lethargic the medication is making her feel. And by the way, if a patient taking lithium experiences extreme lethargy, that could be considered an adverse effect of the medication. Meaning, was this a sign that Micah simply needed her meds to be adjusted? Was it a sign that Micah was worried that she was being overdrogged, or maybe a sign that she was being drugged? In other words, was something else going on here? Because JP's behavior, it was 100 miles per hour, full speed ahead here, and acting like this alleged diagnosis was a full-on crisis, and he came in hot with those emails to Micah, repeatedly guilting her, shaming her, reprimanding, lecturing her. So we have to ask the question, did JP prefer Micah when she was lethargic? Did he like it that her light was being dimmed by this medication? Did that feel less threatening to him?

Did it feel like she would never leave him if she were too tired to do that? Anyway, JP then goes on to say that if Micah reads the text message, and he's referring to the email that was sent to him containing her rambling text message, and if she decides to stay on the medication, he will help her.

I am willing to pray with you more than we do. Help you find snacks that could alter your mood for the better and prevent weight gain. And believe that God will help your discouragement. Your call. I love you no matter what. But regardless of what you choose, I no longer want this as a discussion in our house. Either stay the course or come off the meds. But it is unhealthy and scary for me to be put in a position to constantly worry whether or not you're going to have to leave our house and family and go stay in a mental facility again. I love you. JP.

Again, the way he speaks to her, as if Micah has had this alleged diagnosis for a long time and as if it has been a pattern of her going on and off medication and creating chaos in their lives. By all appearances from his own evidence, this would be the first time. And again, this diagnosis is questionable. More on that after a quick commercial break. We will be right back.

Hey y'all, it's Mandy Matney. If you're listening to Coerced, you already know That Micah Francis Miller's story runs so much deeper than what the world saw on Netflix. This week on True Sunlight, Liz Farrell and I are breaking down what Death of the Pastor's Wife left out, and trust me, it is a lot. Like JP's felon father, Reginald Wayne Miller, and how JP inherited the playbook from him. The manipulation, the lawsuit, the just keep preaching arrogance. Straight from his daddy. Plus, we talk about the 2 Jane Doe lawsuits that Netflix barely touched. And we tell you a whole lot about JP's ex-wife that Netflix left out. Remember, Justice for Micah is a movement, not a moment. And the full story matters. So follow True Sunlight wherever you're listening right now, and check out episode 163, What Netflix Left Out of the Micah Frances Miller Story. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. This ultimatum email telling a newly diagnosed 23-year-old to stay on lithium or stop discussing it in the house where she lives is only a part of the paper trail that JP created. The other part of the trail is Micah's alleged medical records themselves.

Pages that began surfacing publicly after her death, and pages that we obtained through sources. What's in them doesn't match the story that JP was telling. Her clinicians describe a woman who was doing real good. Not manic, not depressed, not suicidal, a finding written twice in a single visit. We fully question whether Micah was actually ever diagnosed with bipolar Or if bipolar was something that JP, the pastor, told doctors in the initial ER visit, which led to being memorialized in Micah's medical records— records that were then relied on by future clinicians and Micah to validate what they were being told was true. And nowhere in any record that we've seen is the word JP kept using on TikTok and in interviews, schizophrenia. Keep in mind as you listen, federal prosecutors now allege that lying about Micah was something JP was willing to do, even with the FBI. Here is what her records actually say, from True Sunlight Podcast Episode 65, published in September 2024.

In our opinions, 23-year-old Micah had a horrible start to her second marriage, and instead of nursing Micah back to health, JP burdened her With his emotional fragility and insecurities and immediately labeled her as being an ungodly wife who wasn't living up to his standards. We know that JP wanted Micah to take lithium at that time and that Micah was resistant to that. We also know that JP gave Micah false information that he claimed to be from medical providers about what her life would be like living with bipolar disorder. And that it meant she would be heavily dependent on him forever. Again, it all seems like signs of potential coercive control. And from where we sit, we are starting to question whether JP had motivations in terms of painting Micah as an ill woman. Was he terrified she was going to leave him? And was this an attempt to chain her to him? That said, we don't know much about what the next year looked like in Micah's marriage after that January 11th, 2018 email that we told you about. So, This February 19th, 2019 medical record helps shed some light on that. The record was from an outpatient visit that Micah had at the Community Mental Health Center in Myrtle Beach.

I'm going to have David read a few passages from it, but I want to note a few things first. One is that Micah's chief complaint is listed as, I've been doing real good. The clinician noted that Micah was in good spirits, that her mood was stable, and that she wasn't showing any signs of being manic. 2 is that this alleged record mentions that she is there for bipolar disorder. Here's David with what the clinician wrote. If you detect any judgy tone from David, that's because of how this report reads. Also, David is going to read these reports as if they were written in easily understandable English, so we've spelled out all the abbreviations, but we did not correct the grammatical errors.

We discussed symptoms. and warning signs in order to prevent further decompensation again, but she said she never knew. This shows how poor concentration and attention span she has since I review it with her every appointment due to how severe and extreme her symptoms were. She recognized that she had a lot of delusional thoughts when she gets manic, and she needs to listen to her husband when he raises concerns. Every time she comes with strange ideas for diets that she hears or read about in the internet. This time she asked about starting a 5-day fasting once a month. We discussed how this could interfere with her lithium level and how dangerous it could be as she can become toxic. On the other hand, it could dilute the lithium and she can decompensate due to increased fluid intake.

So, interesting, right?

I don't know if it's typical for clinician notes to sound snobby and judgmental, but it doesn't sound very clinical, right? It doesn't sound objective in the way you might expect a therapist's notes to read. And from what a therapist source told us, the way this report was worded does have some red flags. For instance, the use of the personal pronoun I. That sticks out. The other thing is this: Micah was receiving her mental health care through state and county-funded facilities. Those hospitals and clinics tend to be overwhelmed with the number of patients they have. So some of the anomalies that we are seeing could be attributed to that. But note Micah's confusion about her own diagnosis and its supposed symptoms, and stick a pin in that because it comes up again. This clinician obviously saw Micah's comment that she never knew about the things the clinician was now telling her were actually signs of decompensation, which, by the way, is the word used when a person's diagnosed mental health condition worsens over time. But 1, Micah was 25. 2, so what if she didn't remember? It's not clear when her last appointment was, so we don't know how frequently she was going to a therapist.

Was it every week? Was it every 2 weeks? Or was it every month for a med check? We also don't know how Micah viewed these sessions. Later, she told a therapist she was only coming to see her because it was a requirement for getting the medication. So here is the big question. Was Micah having trouble retaining information about signs of decompensation because she was being told one thing by her therapist and another thing by her husband? Was she being told that behaviors not being listed by her therapist were actually signs that she was worsening? Because you heard that part about Micah recognizing that she needs to listen to her husband when he raises concerns, right? It is a chilling line.

Which brings us to this. I want to make sure we're all on the same page here because we've had a few angry men speak out and dismiss our coverage of this case as man-hating propaganda, which would be hilarious if it weren't so predictable. When we break down the evidence and offer our interpretations of what we're seeing in this case, we are doing so Through 2 lenses that have been provided for us. One is that JP has been accused of coercively controlling Micah in their marriage. We're not trying to make that part of the conversation. It is the conversation. The second is that Micah believed, and according to a recent interview by YouTuber Robbie Harvey with a friend of Micah's who spent the day before her death with her, at least one doctor told Micah That she had been misdiagnosed. And that's no small thing. Micah's diagnosis is the cornerstone to believing that she killed herself because she had gone off her medication and not because of what was going on in her marriage. Okay, back to the listen to your husband when he raises concerns line. In a healthy marriage, and in a case where there's no question that a person had bipolar disorder, That line wouldn't cause automatic pause.

But guess what? Big pause. In all his evidence so far, JP has demonstrated that he had a lot of ideas about what Micah would be like in the future, about what her diagnosis meant for her and how it would present in their marriage. While she was still in the hospital in December 2017, he was already planning for a scenario in which she wouldn't believe what he was telling her about her behavior. He was preparing her for a future where she'd challenge him, and he was preparing her to view his narrative about her as the right one and her narrative about herself as the wrong one. But let's do this. Let's remove Micah and JP from all of this for a second, and let's talk about what life might look like for a woman who has a bipolar disorder diagnosis and a coercively Controlling husband. The diagnosis becomes a tool of leverage, right? It's something a husband who has coercive control issues could pull out at any time and use to course-correct his wife's behavior, behavior that is not pleasing to him and his fragile ego, such as his wife having moments of independent thought or questioning her husband's rationale for certain decisions, or Questioning his behavior or his treatment of her, or spending time with friends and family, etc., etc.

Also, a husband who is coercively controlling might not like to see his wife derive joy from anything other than him and the things that he finds interesting. Her joy with and her joy about others, a joy that might manifest as curiosity about the world around her or give her a drive to learn more are threats to a husband like that. And as a result, that joy can read as out-of-control behavior to the husband, something akin to mania, maybe. In a marriage like the one I'm describing— again, removing Micah and JP from this— a diagnosis like that then becomes the whip, right? You're showing signs of your mental illness, I know you think you're not, but remember when I told you about how this disease is going to make you think that I'm the crazy one and not telling you the truth? Well, now is one of those times. You're acting very manic. Your bipolar disorder is getting worse. You might have to be hospitalized again. So again, back to the clinician's notes from February 2019. Was Micah getting mixed messages about what bipolar disorder looked like? And was she labeling her behavior as manic because that's what she was being told about it?

Also, was the therapist learning about Micah's dietary concerns directly from Micah, or was she learning about them from Micah's husband? Because why would she think this is strange? Name me one 25-year-old woman out there who doesn't talk about strange dieting ideas and things like detoxing. Seriously, one. Name one. Not only are we a nation of disordered eating, Micah, based on the accusations against JP contained in the Micah's Law list, was in what seems like a marriage with a hypersexualized man. A man who, though he claimed not to care about Micah's medication-related weight gain, repeatedly showed signs that he very much did care, such as in his January 2018 email when he suggested her weight gain issue was fixable. If only she exercised discipline and snacked on better foods, like oatmeal. And such as in Micah's list, where he was accused of telling Micah that if she didn't perform for him sexually in the way he wanted, then it was in his right to seek that kind of sex outside of the marriage. In other words, at least from where we sit, it looks like Micah's appearance and maintaining it were critical to her self-esteem in the And it looks like she could have felt some sort of implied pressure there.

Okay. This record ends by noting that Micah was taking 300 milligrams of lithium 3 times a day around this time, which— remember the screenshots of texts JP included in his probate filing between him and a guy named Derek? They were from December 2022, after her hospital stay then. And in them, JP demonstrated just how little he seemed to know about lithium. He seemed shocked that Micah was on 300 milligrams twice a day, and he was like, whoa, that's a lot. And at least twice, this Derek person had to tell him, uh, no, that's actually just the starting dosage, JP. 3 years earlier, it appears that JP's wife was on even more lithium than the dose that shocked him later. In addition, JP had told Derek that Micah was on 450 milligrams of lithium once a day for the past 5 years, which does not appear to be true according to these alleged medical records anyway. So why did JP seem so certain that she was on 455 milligrams for 5 years? It's an important question to ask when there are accusations that he was drugging her. At any rate, the record is cropped and it doesn't show the second medication Micah was on in February 2019.

But in a subsequent record from months later, it appears she was also on 300 milligrams of Seroquel. And she was supposed to take half a tab of that at night. The record ends by noting that Micah was taking her medications as prescribed and that she denied having any side effects from them. She also denied having symptoms of depression and anxiety. She denied feeling suicidal or homicidal, and she denied having hallucinations. Also, the clinician noted that her concentration and appetite were at normal levels, which is a little odd, right? When in her notes she made such a big deal out of Micah not remembering the signs of decompensation, and she literally wrote that this was a sign of Micah's poor concentration levels. But then in the same report, she's also noting normal concentration?

And we'll be right back. The next report is from 4 months later in June 2019. Now, again, we only have a few select reports, and we were only given pieces of these alleged records. So we are not sure about what has been left out, and we also aren't sure about whoever provided these to JP's defenders. So we're not sure about what's been left out and why it was left out. But on June 11th, 2019, Micah went for another follow-up visit. This one was again at the publicly funded Community Mental Health Center, and the same 2 clinicians from February are listed on this alleged record as well. Shadi Dujean, who was a psychiatrist, and Suzanne Harrow, who was a psychiatric nurse. So, Micah's chief complaint during this 2019 visit was, and I quote, I am doing very well.

The appointment was listed as a med check and a follow-up on her bipolar disorder.

It again notes that she was in good spirits and that her mood was stable and that she wasn't showing any symptoms of manic behavior. The clinician notes that they again went over the symptoms and warning signs, quote, in order to prevent further decompensation, end quote. And then she writes, quote, this time she seems to be more in tune with her symptoms of bipolar disorder and asked appropriate questions. So does that mean that Micah hadn't had an appointment for 4 months? It's hard to say. But note the use of the phrase further compensation again. Was this a sign that her alleged disorder had been worsening? And if so, was this something that the clinician actually observed?

Or—

and I'm going to go back to the listen to your husband part of the other report— was the clinician being told things by JP?

Or—

here's where the allegations of coercive control come into play— was the clinician being told negative things about Micah's behavior By Micah. Again, had Micah been conditioned to believe what she might have been told about her conditions, actions, and personality? Listen, a lot of us, maybe most of us, have had friends and relationships that they haven't yet identified or accepted as bad or abusive, and so they regard any criticism lobbed at them by their partner as profound wisdom meant to build them up. Which is how it's all being sold to them, as opposed to being a conscious effort to break them down and make them more malleable. They then adopt that criticism as their own objective view of themselves. Remember, Micah was 15 years younger than JP. With that age gap often comes a power dynamic in which the older partner feels like their perspective carries more weight. So was Micah really exhibiting worsening symptoms of bipolar disorder, or was that something being told and she passed it on to her clinician, or was this just a part of the protocol to go over the signs? It's that word further that has tripped us up here.

Again, I have to ask that question because listen to this. Here is David with the clinician's notes about Micah.

She asked if she was bipolar I or II, and what are delusions of grandeur. She wanted to know the difference between her bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. This time she was not so focused on diets and weight gain. She is maintaining her weight. She said she is dealing with initial weight gain and inability to lose the weight By buying bigger size clothes.

Well, gee, I wonder why she was asking what delusions of grandeur were. Was someone telling her that her normal 25-year-old ebullience and expression of hopes and dreams were delusions of grandeur? And it's sort of curious that she didn't know which form of bipolar disorder she had. This is about 18 months after her alleged initial diagnosis, so Is this a sign of that poor concentration that the clinician noted from the last medical record? Or is it a sign that she wasn't getting this information directly from the physician? Is it a sign that she didn't feel free to ask these types of questions whenever she was allegedly diagnosed? Additionally, notice how she was asking about schizophrenia and the difference between it and bipolar disorder. This is the only time we see this word in the alleged medical records that were provided to us or otherwise published online. At no point in any of the clinician notes does the therapist or physician write that Micah is being treated for schizophrenia as JP has repeatedly claimed. And here we see that Micah is asking about the difference between the bipolar diagnosis she allegedly had and this other disorder, a disorder that is treated with some of the same types of medication that Micah had been prescribed.

Was Micah asking because she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, counter to what the alleged records seemed to be showing? Did she think she might have schizophrenia, or was she being told she had it by someone not in the medical field? This report notes that Micah is still on 300 milligrams of lithium carbonate 3 times a day and half of a 300 milligram tablet of Seroquel at night. The clinician writes that Micah is sleeping well and is not experiencing any drug-induced movement or any involuntary facial movements, both of which are side effects to the medications. She also notes that Micah doesn't have any suicidal or homicidal ideations, and she has no plans for carrying out either. In fact, that part is written twice in these records. The clinician notes that Micah was taking her meds as prescribed and wasn't experiencing side effects or symptoms of depression or anxiety, nor any mania, nor was she having hallucinations. She was perfectly normal. And we imagine this is something JP would want out there. Evidence that when she was on her medication, Micah was happy and healthy.

One line from the 2019 medical record deserves to be read just one more time. Micah recognized that she needs to, quote, listen to her husband when he raises concerns. That sentence sat in a clinician's notes for 5 years before Micah died. 5 years before a medical examiner in another state wrote bipolar suicide attempt in a box on a bright yellow report and declined to order an autopsy. Coercive control doesn't just rewrite a victim's daily life, it can rewrite their records. And records can outlive us. Micah seemed to understand that better than anyone. Next episode, we will open the records up themselves, the stack of Micah's alleged medical files that surfaced after her death. You'll hear about the one month that's missing from that stack and why everything else is built on it. And you'll meet the psychiatrist whose name is on so many of those reports, a doctor with a licensing history no one treating Micah seemed to know about. And you'll learn what Micah did months before she died, 3 days out of an involuntary hospitalization. She filed her own FOIA request, She fought to get her hands on her own history, to see what had been written about her and by whom.

J.P. Miller spent years authoring the official version of Micah's life. In her final months, Micah was trying to take the pen back. Until next time, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. Coerced: The Devotion and Death of Micah Francis Miller is a Luna Shark production with reporting from journalists Mandy Matney, Liz Farrell, and Beth Braden, made possible by producers Kate Thomas, Grace Hills, and David Moses. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com.