Transcript of 8) The Law That Could Have Saved Mica Francis Miller + The Abuse Alleged In Mica’s List

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Or join Luna Shark Premium for early episodes, video episodes, live or virtual events, bonus episodes, and so much more. This is Coerced: The Devotion and Death of Micah Francis Miller. A Luna Shark drop fee.

My name is Mandy Matney.

Journalists Liz Ferrell, Beth Braden, and I have been reporting on Micah's story for more than 2 years now for True Sunlight Podcast. Coerced is a Luna Shark production made possible by producers Kate Thomas, Grace Hills, and David Moses. I will never forget the day that I first read Micah's list. I was in Horry County to cover what was supposed to be a hearing related to Micah's estate that day at the Horry County Courthouse. The hearing was canceled, but Regina Ward, Micah's family attorney, called a press conference instead. She stood in the hot South Carolina sun and told a large crowd of press the horrific details that she had uncovered about Micah's relationship with JP, which she outlined in a list that she printed out for everyone who was at the press conference. The abuse that Micah alleged was so much worse than than I ever imagined. And that day, attorney Regina Ward proposed Micah's Law. Let's dive in.

Well, hello from Myrtle Beach. We just got back from Micah Miller's family press conference at the Horry County Courthouse, and I have a lot of emotions to sort through right now. Mostly, I'm furious. I'm furious for Micah, Who we are going to start referring to as Micah Francis as much as possible, and we will explain that later in this episode. But also, I am furious for Micah's family and for every woman who has fought the same fight with the system working against them at every turn. I am furious that Micah's family had to stand there today in the hot, blistering South Carolina sun to To share Micah's story and educate the public on coercive control in hopes that laws can be changed and that other women like Micah can be saved. There are no do-overs to this tragedy. They can win in civil court and maybe they can win in the state house with Micah's bill, but none of that brings their beloved Micah back. None of it makes the pain of losing her any easier. None of it will bring them the light that Micah had on their lives. What happened to them was final.

All they can do is help protect other Micahs out there in bad situations who might be experiencing coercive control and don't even realize it. All they can do is pick up the pieces that she left behind and expose those responsible for her life ending the way that it did. All they can do is finish the fight that Micah started a long time ago, the fight to escape and eventually expose JP Miller. All they can do is share the painful details of Micah's story in hopes that the world wakes up and maybe one day passes Micah's Bill. How can what happened to Micah possibly be legal? How much evidence of horrific behavior do we have to see until someone is in handcuffs? How come the punishment for stealing from Walmart is so much more clear-cut and defined than the punishment is for mentally tormenting someone to the point that they feel like death is the only option? How come coercive control, a pattern of behavior used to dominate, manipulate, and intimidate, Another person, as attorney Regina Ward described it today, isn't a common term in our legislation. I want to talk about torment and coercive control for a minute today because I'll be honest, I didn't really hear of that term much until I started listening to Laura Richards' podcast, Crime Analyst.

You can hear our conversation about coercive control on Cup of Justice Episode 63. In today's press conference, Micah Miller's family attorney, Regina Ward, told reporters about how Micah's family wants to change the coercive control bill in South Carolina to Micah's Bill, with a few adaptations. You see, as Regina explained today, this bill could have possibly saved Micah's life by giving police officers a roadmap for what to look for in abuse cases. But unfortunately, this bill has also been collecting dust in the Judiciary Committee since 2020. That doesn't surprise me at all because honestly, our legislature is wildly corrupt, mostly male, and quite frankly, this bill could be bad news for many of them. But besides that, the coercive control bill probably didn't get a lot of steam because it didn't have a specific name, face, and story attached to it, showing people exactly what coercive control looks like and the tragic consequences of it. So on Wednesday, Regina Ward and Micah Miller's family presented Micah's Bill to the public. They released purple packets of information to reporters and sent them to state representatives with Micah's name, Face, Story, and Micah's List attached to it. Micah's List is a stomach-turning 5-page document of unbelievably painful allegations that Micah made about JP and were discovered through her writings and journals.

It is all hard to read. Premium members received these documents last night. Please share them. Regina notes that these are allegations and that JP hasn't been charged with any crimes related to Micah, ever. But I want to go over a few of these allegations because blanketed terms like abuse and torture just don't quite move the needle and get people fighting for Micah like they should. This list might change the game for how we look at coercive control.

As a society.

This list is divided into 2 parts. The first part lists 15 coercive control behaviors alleged by Micah that are already included in the bill, followed by examples. We're going to go over this list again in a more detailed way, but I want to talk about a few of these and give the examples that were written to give y'all an idea of what I'm talking about. And trigger warning, this stuff is hard to hear. One item says depriving her of basic needs. It says that JP would not let Micah sleep. He kept her up all night and he pulled the covers off of her every time that she dozed off. It claims that she threw her clothes on the front lawn of their home. And he would allegedly incessantly wake her up screaming, To the point that she had to sleep in her car at times. Another behavior listed is expressing her worthlessness. It claims that JP told Micah that she was lazy and mentally ill, that her breasts were too small, that her family was ignorant, and that she wasn't a Christian woman if she ever questioned him or didn't submit to his dark secrets.

Humiliated, degraded, and dehumanized her. It alleged that JP forced Micah to submit to humiliating sexual acts that disgusted and hurt her. The document alleges that he would tell her that she was mentally ill and have her hospitalized against her will. Another behavior on this list: threats to reveal or publish private information. The example claims that JP would make videos of Micah in private and threaten to upload them. If she didn't do what he wanted. And finally, this one, rape. According to Micah, while she was hospitalized, JP demanded that she have sex with him while she lay in a hospital bed. The document claims that JP forced her to perform sexual acts against her will and demanded that she watched him in sexual acts with others while preaching on Sunday. That it was her job as a wife to always submit. So those were some of the things on the list that the original coercive control bill included. Then there is another list that includes behavior Micah alleged that were suggested to be added to the coercive control bill. One of those is cruelty to her dog. Another one, destruction of supporting evidence. Another, misuse of legal documents, misuse of law enforcement, misuse of the legal process.

But the one on this list that stuck out to me was medical abuse. It says that JP declared Micah bipolar, forced her to take lithium, a prescription of his own, monitored whether she complied with taking the pills, and would forcefully give her steroid and testosterone shots in her arms, thighs, and buttocks. JP would allegedly make her swallow pills, and if he thought she didn't take them, he would cut them up and put them in her food. Whew. I know it's hard to hear, but we need to hear these details. It is maddening to think that in the eyes of our law right now, a lot of those things listed above don't qualify as being black and white illegal. We will talk more about Micah's Law later in this episode, and a lot more in episodes down the road, because it is important. As Regina Ward said, we have to educate people, especially lawmakers, on problems that they might be minimizing simply because they never heard details like this to explain a problem like coercive control.

This will give them the tool that they need. It needs to be education about what coercive control is. Someone who's not lived in it or been a part of it sometimes has a difficulty wrapping their mind around what this is. Coercive control is basically like a psychological warfare. It will damage the very soul of a person. It will make them doubt and lose their self-confidence. And especially their self-worth. And they'll give up. They'll give up on being happy. And they'll survive and trudge through day by day. Or maybe they won't. What this family wants you to do is to help this. We want Micah's Law. We want the coercive control bill to be looked at, taken seriously, Put some time into it.

Micah's list tells you what coercive control looks like. What comes next tells you how long South Carolina has known about this problem and how long our elected officials have failed to take action. Here is a clip from True Sunlight Podcast, Episode 55.

We know this is going to be a big battle because a coercive control bill has already been introduced in the legislature 3 times, twice in the House and once in the Senate. All 3 times, it was essentially dead on arrival when it was sent to the Judiciary Committee. In December of last year, the South Carolina Bar Association held a continuing education course on family law court in which attorney Megan Hunt Dell spoke about coercive control and how to identify the signs of this type of domestic abuse. A packet from the class notes that coercive control perpetrators are a particularly dangerous type of abuser because they are persistent. Their desire to control is intense and rigid, and if they feel like they're losing control, they can take extensive, extreme, and even lethal actions to maintain control and/or punish the victim. They generally refuse to take no for an answer. Consequences are unlikely to be deterrents. They are generally very charming and manipulative. And they have no interest in changing their behavior. So our state's own bar association has recognized how malignant this type of abuser is. Our bar association that is made up of lawyers. many of whom are also a part of our legislature.

The bar even instructed lawyers and judges on what they can do when faced with situations where coercive control is at play. Some of the things on that list include recognizing that abuse can exist without bruises, making legal resources affordable for victims, validating victims' experiences, Advocating for victims, identifying and exposing abusive tactics by abusers, supporting victims' attempts to set boundaries with their abusers, and by enforcing court orders. So where exactly is the disconnect? Well, the disconnect is that the Bar has not acknowledged that this is an issue. They have acknowledged that lawyers and judges have a role to play in mitigating this type of abuse. They've acknowledged that abusers are very difficult to stop. And yet a bill that would be a literal lifesaver has failed 3 times in our legislature. Is that because our mostly male legislature knows that a Venn diagram of their own bad behaviors toward women would sometimes overlap in the coercive control bubble? They can't even make a joke about women being a lesser cut of meat these days. Am I right, boys? Right after Regina B. Ward's press conference last week, where she specifically called out Senator Luke Rankin, Luke Rankin, Micah's own senator, posted his lame, defensive, and manipulative response on his Facebook page.

Rankin, by the way, is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is an attorney who has been a part of the state Senate since I was in preschool in 1993. Rankin has done nothing to fix the way our state elects judges. And he had this to say about the Francis family's request for the legislature to reintroduce the bill under the name Micah's Law with a few amendments. First, it starts out by explaining the situation to people who are not familiar with it.

I was shocked and saddened at the news of Micah Miller's death. And I join our community in mourning her much too short life. Now we await results of any investigation by the proper authorities of possible wrongdoing.

Then he scolds those calling for a law to protect women from coercive control.

Disappointingly, yesterday, the family law attorney who represented Micah before her tragic death chose to use Micah's death to take a political cheap shot Then he splits hairs. For the record, there is no such bill pending before either the House or Senate Judiciary Committee, and no bill has been introduced by any member of the House or Senate since 2021.

Then he gets defensive while also manipulatively establishing that no one who matters seems to think we need this law.

Before yesterday, no law enforcement, victims advocate, family court judge, or family law attorney, including Ms. Ward, has ever asked me to help make this bill a law.

He then calls Regina a liar.

The statement or suggestion made otherwise is completely false.

Then he promises nothing while also— and bear with me on this one because you might think that I'm reading too much into this— getting a little dog-whistly for the patriarchy. He refers to South Carolina laws as meant to protect the innocent, and by innocent he likely means women, which is insulting and infantilizing. How about laws meant to prevent the Bad actors from committing bad acts. How about laws that are meant to hold the guilty accountable for their behavior? You only need to regard women as human. We don't have to be perfect Disney princesses to be deserving of equal justice under the law that holds our abusers accountable.

While I always seek ways to strengthen SC laws to protect the innocent, I realize for a bill to become law, it requires action by the majority of the House, Senate, and the Governor. I stand ready to help continue to make SC and our community the place so many love to call home.

Like I said, he made no promises. Basically, the point of his post was that he didn't like people calling him out when he was trying to get reelected. Don't blame me, blame yourselves. And that, my friends, is the general attitude of our legislators. We really hope that hearing about the experiences Micah outlined in her journals will help motivate these guys in a different way this time around. Because honestly, we don't know how anyone can read these allegations without wanting to fix it so that men won't be able to act the way that Micah says JP acted toward her without fear of arrest. We don't know how anyone can continue down their normal path after reading about Micah's allegation that JP would routinely take her phone and hide it from her, allegations that he would tell her that her family members were not good people and that she should disassociate from them. Allegations that he would forbid her from spending time with friends or question her so insistently about it that the harassment outweighed the benefit of having friendships. Allegations that he wouldn't let her sleep and would keep her up all night, pulling the covers off her every time she dozed off.

Allegations that he would throw her clothes out on the front lawn, that she would be forced to sleep in her car to get peace from him. Allegations that he tracked her whereabouts and showed up at a location where she was and would stand in the distance so that she could see that he was there. Allegations that he would monitor her communications and talk about them in his sermons. Allegations that he would hack into her email, Apple account, and Facebook account and assume her identity. Allegations that he would take her driver's license, wallet, purse, house keys, and change the locks on the doors of the house. Allegations that he convinced her she didn't need a lawyer. Allegations that he would use his sermons to send messages to her against speaking out. Allegations that he raped her and forced her to perform sexual acts against her will and forced her to watch him in sexual acts with others. Allegations that he would preach that if his sexual wishes went unfulfilled, it would be her fault if he sought another woman or man to satisfy him. Allegations that he removed her from their bank accounts but required her to continue to pay bills.

Allegations that he would mess with her transportation and interfere with her work by randomly firing her from the church she worked at. Allegations that he would use her faith against her and tell her that she wasn't a good Christian. Allegations that he would make videos of her in private settings and then threaten to upload them if she didn't do what he wanted. Allegations that he would tell her she was lazy, mentally ill, gullible, and not smart. All of that, the larger picture of it, the pattern of it, Would have been prohibited if South Carolina would have passed its 2022 coercive control bill. And that is not even mentioning the allegations that speak toward further amendments to that bill suggested by Micah's attorney and family. Allegations that JP was emotionally abusive. Allegations that JP was using humiliation as a weapon against Micah. Allegations that he would ignore her requests to leave her alone. Allegations that he was cruel to her dog. Allegations that he would destroy her property and he had keyed her car and dented her hood with a dumbbell. Allegations that he actively tried to, and in some instances, was able to destroy evidence related to her documentation of his alleged abuse.

Allegations that he misused legal documents and had a cease and desist letter sent to Micah, threatening legal action against her if she spoke badly about him and the church. Allegations that he demanded she sign a postnuptial agreement giving up certain marital rights. Allegations that he demanded that she sign a separation agreement without the benefit of legal counsel. Allegations that he would misuse law enforcement by calling police on her to make false reports. Allegations that he would misuse the legal process by filing papers twice in probate court to have her committed. The judge prevented that from happening, by the way. Allegations that he convinced Micah to drop her divorce case against him only to very literally Turn around and immediately file his own case against her. Allegations that he would routinely cheat on her and pay for sex with both men and women. Allegations he would steal her identity and text from her accounts in an attempt to disgrace her name. Allegations that he would change her passwords and lock her out of her own accounts. Allegations that he would engage in medical abuse by declaring Micah to be bipolar and forcing her to take his prescription of lithium.

Allegations that he would give her testosterone shots and make her swallow pills in his presence. Allegations that he would convince her that her Christian duty was to forgive him. Allegations that JP would use his power at the church against her, even using church letterhead for the purposes of harassing her. And finally, allegations that he would engage in physical abuse that left no marks, such as finger punching Micah in the throat or holding her up against a wall by her throat, and such as slapping a drink out of her hand and snatching a plate of food from her and throwing it.

So, here's the frustrating truth. Many of those behaviors, on their own, are not chargeable crimes in South Carolina. And the ones that are, JP Miller was never charged with.

And we will be right back.

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We expose the truth wherever it leads, give voice to victims, and get the story straight.

My name is Mandy Matney.

Together with journalist Liz Farrell, we continue this mission with our newest evolution, True sunlight. Luna Shark's True Sunlight podcast values accuracy over access journalism.

We're out! Hey, hey, welding back up! Camp Swamp Road, and somebody just unloaded, shot through his windshield, and shot this guy.

True sunlight is shed with empathy, not exploitation.

I don't really trust the media too much because they're just looking for a story, and instead of helping Woodstock, True Sunlight is the intersection of journalism, true crime, and systemic corruption.

I was in the shadows last night. I weren't there, but I was in the shadows.

We continue to shed light on Stephen Smith's case and Alex Murdaugh's co-conspirators. But also, we like to take deep dives into other cases around the country.

Robeson County 911.

And she actually said the FBI was looking into it.

And he said, call the cops, I don't care. I'm— I'm gonna kill you. I'm, um, armed and ready.

True Sunlight empowers listeners to understand their legal and judicial systems with our unique brand of pesky journalism.

Listen to True Sunlight wherever you get your podcasts, or visit truesunlight.com to learn more, or join Luna Shark Premium for early episodes, video episodes, live or virtual events, bonus episodes, and so much more. So what exactly would Micah's Law change? Here's that explanation from True Sunlight podcast, episode 54.

Perhaps the most important part of the press conference, though, was the announcement that Regina and the Francis family are now working toward creating Micah's Law, a law that would criminalize coercive control A bill was introduced in the South Carolina House and Senate in 2020 that would have criminalized, quote, the act or pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation, manipulation, and intimidation, or other abuse, including emotional abuse, that is used to harm, punish, or frighten the victim by fraudulent representations. It basically expands the idea that domestic violence is solely a physical act of abuse. But that bill failed. Regina said that had it passed in 2020, JP would have been arrested because the police would have had a law to follow. They wouldn't have been able to just throw up their hands and act like there was nothing they could do about it, which we still think there were things law enforcement could have done to help Micah. Regina said that as part of their pursuit of a coercive control law, they want to include a misuse of legal documents clause that would criminalize the use of the legal system for purposes of intimidation and control.

This is where we should remind you about the police reports that Solid Rock appears to have filed against Micah, accusing her of stealing from them, even after it looked like a judge had declined to issue a warrant declaring that No crime had been committed. This accusation weighed on Micah. We told you a few weeks ago about how Micah had spoken with the FBI about apparent financial anomalies at the church and how she was convinced that JP and his enablers would try to pin it on her. We'll talk a lot more about coercive control laws in the future, but we'll say this for now. It's a much-needed law, and it's going to take a big village to help get this passed. And you know why? Because a coercive control law will protect women and it will really mess up bad men. And we all know that our mostly male legislators across the country really hate laws that they can picture being used against them because they know their own behavior toward women over the years hasn't been so great, because they hate giving women any control over their own Safety.

Cup of Justice is Luna Shark's conversational podcast, and sometimes we welcome expert guests from around the world. On Cup of Justice episode 86, we spoke with Laura Richards, a former New Scotland Yard criminal behavioral analyst and high-risk stalking advocate. Laura is also one of the world's leading experts on coercive control. Here, Laura explains the patterns that she looks for, and then she describes the red flags that she saw when she turned her attention to JP Miller.

Laura, all of this is just really upsetting.

Um, can you talk a little bit about what specific patterns of behavior that you look for when identifying these coercive control behaviors? What are some things that people need to know to identify coercive control?

Yes, I mean, it is really troubling, Mandy, and I am glad that we're, we're having this conversation because there will be people listening that relate to this, and that's why talking about it is so important. But it can be lots of different types of behaviors. You know, there might be behaviors where there's rules and regulations laid down and a fear of consequence, i.e., that she has to have her battery charged on her phone and she has to call in or text message or send a picture of where she's at to prove that she is where she says she's going to be, at her mother's house or at a friend's house. It could be clothes, certain clothes being worn, hair has to be in a certain way. It could be that she has to work 2 or 3 jobs, or it might be that she doesn't have to work and won't work at all; she's not allowed to work. It could be she's not allowed access to the bank account, or that she has credit cards, but he's running up the credit cards and getting her into debt. Or it could be anything where she may be subordinated, or it creates a dependency.

So one of the cases, she wasn't allowed her own social media; it had to be joint social media so that he could see everything that she was posting. It might be pseudo-caring behavior. Oh, well, she's had a mental breakdown, and I'm the one that's caretaking for her. And in almost every case, there's isolation. So, the perpetrator will try and ensure that the victim is isolated from her friends and her family. And with that, it means that they can monopolize perception, both perception of other people of her, but also he can talk to her in a negative way about her friends and family too, and drive a wedge. And that isolation is present in most cases. It could be threats. You know, if she were to be late, or if she was found talking to Y, you know, it might be an old boyfriend or a new girlfriend, or— but there are these rules and regulations, and the perpetrator will use threats for the things that the victim cares about the most, or the people that they care about the most. So, it's very idiosyncratic behavior. It's nuanced and tailor-made to the victim. It could be that they're not allowed to sleep, or they're not allowed to eat certain things, or they have to do certain amount of fitness, and that's being monitored and managed by the perpetrator.

It might be devaluing. So I always listen very carefully as to how a perpetrator talks about the victim, if they devalue them, if they try and make their world small, if they discredit them, if they belittle them. Or equally, it might be that they are putting them on a pedestal, and there's this sort of the opposite effect where they're saying these grandiose things that are almost too good to be true, but they're divorced from reality. So I look for both things. It could be— I mean, really it's about grooming and brainwashing. So I listen very carefully to how the victim talks about herself and if her world has been shrunk down. And if I see a world being shrunk down, rather than when 2 people are in a healthy relationship, you want your partner's world to be as expansive as possible. You want them to enjoy everything in life and experience everything in life. That's a healthy relationship. relationship. So the converse is if I see someone shrinking down someone's world, then I know that there are red flags there. So I look for lots of different things because every case is quite different. But there's a list there of things that you can— certainly like isolation— that will be present.

And oftentimes the victim, when you hear them talk, they will talk in the perpetrator's words. So they might say, oh, yes, well, we did move away, but that was because it was better for me and for my job prospects, and it was better for Derek because he wanted a brand-new start. What she won't say is it takes her away from her friends, her family, her job, everything that she knows. So, I have to listen very carefully to how a victim talks about what's going on for her, but also how a perpetrator talks. And that's why the DASH risk model is very important to make sense of what's being said, but every case is quite different. Yeah.

And we will absolutely link to that for people to look at. I mean, your website is just full of really, really helpful information and lists to, like you said, break these complicated things down in a way that people understand and can relate to and can identify, um, with relationships in their life.

The other thing I'll just add in, Mandy, is I always look at the start of the relationship too, because often with a coercive controller, you have love bombing. And you have whirlwind, i.e., it happened all very quickly and the coercive controller moved the needle very quickly, this whirlwind with love bombing techniques of these grand statements of, I want to die in your arms. I want your face to be the last person that I see. And within a week, I want to marry you and have children with you. Them forcing intimacy, which for the victim might feel good because we all want to feel special and connected, but the perpetrator will move it along and will create a false impression of who they are to match what the victim wants. So again, asking very specific questions about how someone met and the type, how they got together and what happened within the first 6 months. And I often see this whirlwind and love bombing strategy, which is a clear campaign because perpetrators do pick out the victim in a sense of not you, not you, not you, but you. They test boundaries and whether someone's malleable right at the start when they first meet the victim.

Everything is a setup from the start.

What red flags did you see when you started looking into this and you started watching videos of JP and his behavior?

Yes, I mean, there were many red flags that I saw from the start, even with his announcement. That Micah had died and that her death was self-induced, which is what he said, which was a very strange thing that he announced her death at the end of a sermon as sort of a postscript, which struck me as very odd straight away when I saw that. But the fact that he then said that she had mental health struggles, those 2 things— self-induced that she died and that she had struggled with suicide, she had mental health struggles— immediate red flags for me. Why would you put that out there on the Sunday when you've just found out that your partner, your wife, has died? That's before I knew anything of what had gone on. And then as I started to dig into it— and I think you and I were both digging into it at the same time because we saw that being said and it was an immediate red flag— and him telling his congregation not to discuss it, made me feel very uncomfortable. And then finding out that she had separated from him, well, that's another red flag.

Then finding out she was trying to divorce him, so with finality— it's not just separation, it's also with finality— that's within the high-risk clusters, that she wasn't going to go back to him. And then finding out there was some back-and-forth going on, and then she called it and said absolutely she was not going back and that there was adultery there. Well, then I started digging into his background and finding out that he had been married before, that he did have a previous conviction for running over a woman at high speed, running over her twice. Well, huge red flag, how you treat a woman. But literally this case, the more you start digging, the more red flags appear. And that's what's the concern to me of finding out that, yes, It's believed that she pulled the trigger. Well, I know with many suicides that a woman may well end her life like Justine Rees and Kelly Sutton and Chloe Holland. These are cases in the UK. But what if he made her life so unbearable that she felt she had no other option? And that was the question that I had. What if her mental health struggles were from him and that she didn't have them before?

And so, that was another question that I wrote down. When did the mental health problems, in inverted commas, start? Why was he talking openly about them? I felt that that was very disrespectful, and it was almost like he was weaponizing and trying to corral the church. This is before I knew all the detail that I now know, but these are the sorts of things, the questions that I have in my head when I see something happening like what he did— JP announcing to his congregation that literally, you know, the day after he had been told that she had ended her life. And I was sure that the police probably would have said to him not to say anything at that point because they still had an investigation. And that was another red flag for me, the fact that he was saying things when I'm sure that the police would have told him not to make it public because they still had the autopsy to be done. That hadn't been completed. So, Why did he feel, given that she was trying to leave him and divorce him, that it was his right to tell other people what had happened?

He still felt, in my mind, that she was his property. And so that was another red flag. And then of course, when you start to look on social media, you would see on Facebook that she had done a number of videos where she clearly was upset about things. And so that was a red flag for me. When you look at other images of her where she looked so carefree, and then some of these videos where she seemed very burdened with troubles— and she talked about domestic abuse, and she talked about what God would think, would it be better for someone to live without the abuse and the abuser? And I felt that she was putting out a message there. So these red flags just unfortunately continued to accumulate because it was sounding to me once I realized when she got married to him— well, she met him when she was very young and he was much older, so there's a power imbalance right from the start, Mandy. And that's what I look for. Was there a power imbalance? Is there coercive control? And for her to be, I think, 15 when she met him, in the church setting.

I wondered whether he started to pay her attention from early on. I still don't know in detail how much attention he paid her, but she was married before, and then she ends up marrying him at 23, and he had 5 children. So the fact that she's 23— I mean, you're still very young at 23, and she's walking into this stepmother role of 5 children. That's a huge undertaking.

Right.

A huge power imbalance. And then it seemed to me that things started to unravel in that hearing that she had been sectioned in a mental health institution in 2022. Again, I wondered what preceded that. And then I heard your episode with Charlotte talking about a big argument and her leaving him, going to stay with her sister, and then him sending countless messages threatening her. You know, and listening to that interview that you did with her, and I'm so glad that Charlotte spoke out, you got a real sense about how he was using Charlotte. He was saying that it was for accountability, but it was for manipulation, in my opinion, that he was using her to gang up against Micah, but also to threaten Micah and to say he was going to go Round to the sisters' home. He had 6 guns because he got a pardon on the offense where he ran over a woman, and he requested that pardon. And you covered that in your episodes, but that was a huge red flag, that action and that behavior. Him then having 6 guns and threatening to go there armed and ready, I mean, I had chills listening to that.

of Charlotte describing what he was saying, and that Charlotte was aware of it, but he was trying to twist the narrative to make himself look like the victim. When Micah, it seems to me, just wanted time out at that particular time in the relationship, had gone to her sister's to get some perspective and headspace, and there he was threatening her, and threatening her sister, and the 6-year-old boy who lived there. Well, that told me he was a man who was unstable, unhinged, and potentially dangerous. And then when she's not giving him the reply that he wants, I think he had sent her many messages trying to manipulate her into responding, and she just said, why are you acting so crazy? He then says that he's going to put all her possessions into Goodwill by 9:00 AM, and that she has to do the right thing and be a godly wife. And he's using all these different levers. So on the power and control Yeah. I can see all his tactics trying to manipulate and control her, and then understanding she didn't really have any money and she didn't have access to a car, and then he's putting razor blades.

Well, she goes into a mental institution after that, and I wondered how much he played a role in that. And then when she manages to separate from him, it escalated again. And the razor blades, we know that he was stalking her because he admitted it to Rich McHugh. So, I've continued to track the case, and everything that I've heard just makes me feel very concerned about the coercive and controlling behavior of devaluing her, demeaning her, isolating her from her friends and family, and telling them not to contact her when she was in the hospital. He was doing everything that he could to drive her into being more dependent on him when she came out. And that, for me, wasn't someone acting in her best interests. Everything that he did appears, in my opinion, to be acting in his own best interest, and he stacked the deck in favor of himself and against her. Even with the church. And I've been led to believe through Charlotte and, and others that I've heard that Michael was very popular there, and yet he was trying to corral everyone against her with these allegations of mental health issues, which I still don't know if they've been substantiated.

And even if they were, it would be understandable that she felt her world was upside down with all the gaslighting And how hopeless and helpless he made her feel when she was trying to separate from him. And the ante was upped, as I often see, the stalking. He hired a private investigator. He did everything that he could to wear her down. I call it the war of attrition, and he was relentless. So there were many red flags, and I knew that the diaries— she had written the diaries and the journals— I knew that they would play a huge part And the penny dropped for me when I heard that he had gone round to her apartment and was trying to gain access to her apartment after she died. And I wondered, was he trying to get her diaries and journals? Because we know that he had already gone through her phone when she was in the hospital, and we know that there was a half-naked picture that was uploaded on April 8th, I believe it was, of her that was from her Mm-hmm. Devices, but it was linked to her old Facebook account. I'm sure that that was probably him given the totality of everything that has gone on.

And that's why, Mandy, I always look for the pattern and the totality of who else would it be when you've got all this drip, drip, drip of behavior, the insidious 1,000 cuts. So, for me, there were hundreds of red flags. That point in one direction of this man, Pastor JP Miller, just making her life so miserable and just so awful that perhaps that answers why she ended her life and why she felt that she didn't have any hope because he was taking it away with every act. Even with the divorce and with the stalking, the police said, well, there was nothing they could do. Because it was a marital car. Well, that's absolute nonsense, because there's no piece of legislation nowadays that says, you and the car are the property of the marriage, and therefore this law doesn't apply. It's about how you apply the legislation. But I do believe the coercive control law is needed too, and therefore, if it were in place, it would have been much clearer if those officers were trained, But the point I'm making is just how everybody backs up the abuser, that Micah tried to get her freedom and it cost her her life.

Yeah, and I think that's something that people try to brush off with this case, but it's not the point. Um, how exactly she died doesn't matter a whole lot to me.

I'm—

more focused on what, what drove her to that point where, where she was and what drove her— More on that after a quick commercial break.

We will be right back.

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We expose the truth wherever it leads, give voice to victims, and get the story straight.

My name is Mandy Matney.

Together with journalist Liz Farrell, we continue this mission with our newest evolution, True Sunlight. Luna Shark's True Sunlight podcast values accuracy over access We're out.

Hey, back up. Welding, back up. Came off-road and somebody just unloaded, shot through his windshield and shot this guy.

True sunlight is shed with empathy, not exploitation.

I don't really trust the media too much because they're just looking for a story, and instead of helping with Stephen's story, they're actually hurting it.

True sunlight is the intersection Of journalism, true crime, and systemic corruption.

I was in the shadows last night. I weren't there, but I was in the shadows.

We continue to shed light on Stephen Smith's case and Alex Murdaugh's co-conspirators, but also we like to take deep dives into other cases around the country.

Robeson County 911.

And she actually said the FBI was looking into it.

And he said, call the cops, I don't care. I'm, I'm, um, armed and ready.

True Sunlight Empowers listeners to understand their legal and judicial systems with our unique brand of pesky journalism. Listen to True Sunlight wherever you get your podcasts, or visit truesunlight.com to learn more.

Or join Luna Shark Premium for early episodes, video episodes, live or virtual events, bonus episodes, and so much more. Micah's law eventually got its hearing. When a South Carolina Senate subcommittee took it up in April 2026, 2 years after Micah died. Lawmakers give proponents and opponents of a bill time to speak before making their decisions. Here is Micah's sister, Abigail Francis.

Next, we have Abigail Francis. If you would, just state your name, if you represent an organization, or reference your statement.

Hi.

I'm, I'm assuming this is Anna Francis?

Anastasia. Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, State Representative committees, and fellow South Carolinians. My name is Abigail Francis, and this is Anastasia Francis, and we are representing the Francis family on behalf of our sister, Micah Francis, whom some of you may know as Micah Miller. We're in favor of the Course of Control Bill S.702 and are asking the committee to rename this bill Micah's Law. Micah was a fierce woman of God, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, and much more. On April 27th, 2024, Micah was found deceased 2 days after she had served her alleged abuser with divorce papers. Micah did what we are all told to do in abusive situations, but was failed time after time by the Myrtle Beach Police Department, the Horry County Police Department, and finally the Robeson County Police Department in her death. Between the years of 2022 and 2024, Micah called the police on 7 different occasions seeking help against her alleged abuser, but there was nothing for them to do since there are no laws to guide them against coercive control. Micah wrote a list of abuse she endured, including an affidavit telling us just a portion of the heinous crimes that were committed against her.

In this affidavit, Micah said that she was forced to take part in sexual acts against her will, meaning she was trafficked. Micah was forced to take steroid injections, causing medical and vocal cord issues. Micah's identity was stolen. Micah's character was put in question with false police reports. which the police on scene told her that it was an abuse of law enforcement. Micah's personal belongings were either stolen, thrown away, damaged, or moved to other locations, but since she was still married, all of these items were listed under marital assets, so there was nothing she or law enforcement could do in this situation. Much more happened to Micah for many years, yet her alleged abuser has not been charged for said crimes. According to the South Carolina Domestic Violence Advisory Committee, South Carolina is the nation's 6th worst state in regards to domestic violence homicide rates. The original course of control bill was introduced in 2019 by Senator Toole during the 123rd session. It was introduced again in 2021 by Senator Shealy in the 124th session, and now it's being introduced in the 126th session by Senator Goldfinch and Senator Grooms. The lack of accountability over the years allowing this bill to lapse was detrimental and unforgivable, as this could have saved our sister's life.

A petition started nationwide the moment Micah died seeking justice and stricter laws. Our family, including 42,632 others, implore you to give this bill a subcommittee along with chargeable offenses. We implore you to take a stand and help save the lives of those who are in need at this very moment. This bill has the ability to save an incalculable amount of individuals. As Christians, God requires us in Micah chapter 6, verse 8, to act justly, to love mercifully, and to walk humbly with him. And that is what we will continue to do. Thank you for your time. God bless, and justice for Micah.

Thank you. Uh, do you have any— do you have any questions? Thank y'all so much. We appreciate y'all's story and y'all's courage and everything, your continued battle for this. And, uh, don't waver. Keep, keep, keep fighting.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Guys, I am trying really hard to be hopeful, but, uh, that felt patronizing. Never waver?

Does that mean this bill is already doomed? As of August 2026, Micah's Law still has not passed. We hope the global attention of Micah's story gives this bill the momentum it deserves. For more information on Micah's Law and how you can help get it passed, visit PassMicahsLaw.net. I want to leave you with this: a law cannot be applied retroactively. Even if Micah's Law passes next session in 2027, it can never be used against JP Miller.

So the question that this series turns to next is, what can be?

Because while the legislature stalled, other wheels were turning. In the coming episodes, we'll take you inside the allegations JP and his church leveled against Micah, the probate documents, and the medical abuse evidence. The emails, the records, the injections, the pills.

And finally, we'll take you to the day that this story changed, the day that federal agents raided JP Miller's house, and what may come after.

Coercive control is designed to be invisible. Micah made sure that what she went through wasn't. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. Coerced: The Devotion and Death of Micah Frances 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.

We expose the truth wherever it leads, give voice to victims, and get the story straight.

My name is Mandy Matney.

Together with journalist Liz Farrell, we continue this mission with our newest evolution, True Sunlight. Luna Shark's True Sunlight podcast values accuracy over access journalism.

We're out! Hey, back up! Welder, back up! Camp Swamp Road, and somebody just unloaded, shot through his windshield, and shot this guy.

True sunlight is shed with empathy, not exploitation.

I don't really trust the media too much because they're just looking for a story, and instead of helping with Stephen's story, they're actually hurting it.

True Sunlight is the intersection of journalism, true crime, and systemic corruption.

I was in the shadows last night. I weren't there, but I was in the shadows.

We continue to shed light on Stephen Smith's case and Alex Murdaugh's co-conspirators, but also We like to take deep dives into other cases around the country.

Robeson County 911.

And she actually said the FBI was looking into it.

And he said, call the cops, I don't care. I'm armed and ready.

True Sunlight empowers listeners to understand their legal and judicial systems with our unique brand of pesky journalism. Listen to True Sunlight wherever you get your podcasts, or visit truesunlight.com to learn more, or join Luna Shark Premium for early episodes.

Video episodes, live or virtual events, bonus episodes, and so much more.