Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #56 - ‘The Smallest Man in the World’: What TikTok Videos and His Parents’ Divorce Tell Us About JP Miller + Buster Murdaugh Sues Netflix

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell — formerly of Murdaugh Murders Podcast — give an update on the latest drama involving Alex Murdaugh. His remaining son, Buster Murdaugh, filed a defamation lawsuit this week against major networks over documentaries they ran, which he said falsely insinuated he had something to do with Stephen Smith’s death. He is also suing a Hampton County reporter and his newspaper company for that same thing. Also, a federal judge issues an order in the Nautilus case, in which the insurance company who issued a multi-million dollar payout to Cory Fleming in Gloria Satterfield’s death is suing to get their money back. In his ruling, Judge Richard Gergel notes that the insurance company KNEW that something fishy was going on with the Satterfield case and yet STILL gave Cory that money. Why? The insurance company feared the payout would be worse if it went to a Hampton County jury. Also on the show, Mandy and Liz continue to connect dots in the Mica Francis case as Mica’s estranged husband, John-Paul Miller, continues to make TikTok videos in the hopes of putting out his own narrative about what their marriage was like. Plus, the disturbing patterns in JP’s parents’ divorce in 2002 and what it tells us about JP’s upbringing. Episode Resources: Mica's List & Mica's Law, Documents Mica's Attorney, Regina Ward's, Press Conference Luna Shark Premium Member Resources - Click Here for Access: Buster Murdaugh's Defamation Lawsuit Nautilus vs Murdaugh et al, Judge Gergel's Order Reginald Wayne Miller x Susan Miller Divorce Documents 2001-2009  Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. Learn more about how you can help us fund FOIA’s, dive deeper into cases and experience the investigation first-hand on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. In June we’re offering your first month of Soak Up The Sun membership with a $6.00 discount. Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. And for those just wanting ad-free listening without all the other great content, we now offer ad-free listening on Apple Podcast through a subscription to Luna Shark Plus on the Apple Podcasts App. Or become a Premiere Member on YouTube for exclusive videos and ad-free episodes. SUNscribe to our free email list to get that special offer for first time members, receive alerts on bonus episodes, calls to action, new shows and updates. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3KBMJcP Visit our new events page Lunasharkmedia.com/events where you can learn about the upcoming in-person and virtual appearances from hosts! And a special thank you to our sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email [e-mail] and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Well, it's been another weird week here at Lunashark. And I want to start on a happy note by saying thank you to a few of our new members, Angela P., Holly B., and Catherine T. for recently becoming Lunashark Premium members. Your support means everything to us. Thank you. And for the bookworms out there, we have a lot of premium content to go with chapters of my book, Blood on Their Hands. We're also working on a special book club feature of Lunashark Premium where members

will be able to schedule a virtual meet and greet with yours truly and your book club to discuss blood on their hands. To learn more, visit lunasharkmedia.com slash membership today. We have a lot to get into with the Micah Francis case, but first, let's talk about the latest legal drama in the Murdoch case. Because again, it never ends. On Friday, Buster Murdoch filed a defamation complaint against Netflix, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Inc., against production companies, Blackfin, Campfire Studios, and Cinemark,

and against newspaper giant, Gannett, and a Hampton County reporter who works for them, who is now the author of two Murdoch-related books, Michael DeWitt. Buster Murdoch is accusing them of falsely and yet heavily suggesting that he had killed Stephen Smith. We're going to talk about this case in our next Cup of Justice episode because we both have a lot of opinions about it and we know our co-host Eric Bland does too.

Also, there's a lot to discuss with this one, including the viability of this lawsuit and what it could do in terms of helping solve Stephen Smith's case. For those of you who might have watched some of the Murdoch-related documentaries, Buster is taking issue with Discovery ID's series Murdoch Murders Deadly Dynasty, which he says aired a 10-minute segment that falsely and subtly accuses him of murdering Stephen Smith. He also is taking issue with HBO's Low Country, The Murdoch Dynasty. Here is David with what the lawsuit says about that one. The series publishes false statements

that suggest the plaintiff, along with others, murdered Stephen Smith by striking him with a baseball bat. A sequence in the show accuses the plaintiff of killing Stephen Smith because of his sexual identity and further insinuates that the plaintiff killed Stephen Smith in relation to a romantic relationship between plaintiff and Smith. These statements are untrue in their entirety.

Buster also takes issue with Netflix's Murdoch Murders, a southern scandal, which, according to his lawsuit, depicts a young man with red hair carrying a baseball bat. The plaintiff has red hair, and it is readily ascertainable from the content of the series that the creators were depicting the plaintiff as the murderer of Stephen Smith. Smith. The series publishes statements such as, quote, everyone keeps coming up to me and saying it was the Murdoch boys, end quote. And quote, listening to these statements, it's pretty clear. Stephen's death is intertwined with the Murdochs, end quote. The series falsely contains statements that the plaintiff was engaged in a romantic relationship with Stephen Smith,

and that it was plaintiff and maybe two other individuals who killed Stephen Smith. In the Netflix documentary, Hampton County reporter Michael DeWitt talked about what happened in the fall of 2015 after a reporter at the newspaper where Michael was editor published a story about Stevens unsolved death. We have talked about this story a lot over the years on the Murdoch Murders podcast and this show because it was the first time anyone came close to publicly accusing the Murdochs as being connected to Stevens case. The story referred to the idea that people in town

knew who had done this to Stephen, but weren't speaking up because it involved a prominent local family. Michael DeWitt is an interesting choice of a defendant because his presence in the roster is the only tie to Hampton County, allowing Buster to file his case with that courthouse, the courthouse that was basically built and run by his forefathers.

Buster himself lives in Beaufort County. This is all very interesting because clearly Buster's attorney believes that Hampton County is the best venue for his client. But two years ago, a Beaufort County jury awarded the mayor of Bluffton a public figure $50 million in a defamation suit that she brought against a very vocal private citizen who accused her of malfeasance. That mayor was represented by Johnny Parker. Yes, the Johnny Parker of PMPED, now known as the Parker Law Group. The guy who gave Ellic hundreds of thousands of dollars

in a loan after the firm suspected him of stealing nearly $800,000. Johnny Parker, the guy who gave Russell Lafitte a large loan to cover the money Russell had loaned himself from Hannah Plyler's account. Anyway, here is what Michael DeWitt is alleged to have said in the Netflix documentary. His statements were included as bullet points, but we're going to have David read them all together.

We were hearing all of these rumors about a possible connection. There is some truth to it. We could not put the Murdoch name in the story unless we wanted to face lawsuits. We said a prominent, well-known family was rumored to be involved. Everyone knew who we were talking about. We published the story and waited. People would come up to me in the piggly wiggly and pat me on the back. We're so thankful you had the courage to run the

story. We did everything but put the Murdock name in the story. I began to have a bad taste in my mouth about the members of the Murdock family as many people in the community did. So yeah, that might be problematic because in Fall 2015, all that was out there were just rumors. It wasn't until the summer of 2021 that Highway Patrol officially released the case file, confirming that the Murdoch name did in fact appear dozens of times throughout the investigation. Now, I know there are some people out there

who think journalists just routinely publish rumors as fact, but we do not. And I'm definitely not saying that that is what happened here. Obviously, this would be for a judge and or a jury to decide. Again, we're going to talk about all of this on Cup of Justice, but we have seen some questions out there asking why there aren't more names listed as defendants in this case, including our own. So I'm going to go back to what I just said. There's a difference between publishing rumors and the truth.

The truth is that the Murdoch name appeared in the case file dozens of times, which is what we've reported time and again. The truth is that investigators were told that Buster had a romantic connection to Stephen. The truth is that Highway Patrol investigators repeatedly said the case belonged with Sled because it did not appear to be a hit and run. The truth is that Stephen's mother Sandy begged for help from the governor, the FBI, and the AG's office because she felt the case was being mishandled. The truth is that Sled took over Stephen Smith's case in June 2021 because of information purportedly discovered in the course of their investigation into Maggie's and Paul's

murders. The truth is that we still don't know what that information is. And the truth is that weeks after Ellic was found guilty of Maggie's and Paul's murders. Buster issued a statement denying any connection to the Stephen Smith case likely in the hopes of being able to move on with his life. And the truth is that all of these documentaries were likely very heavily vetted by lawyers. So this case is going to be a challenge for Buster's attorney, especially because his own client referred to himself as a national figure in a jailhouse call with his father in the fall of 2021, which some could argue raises the threshold in proving defamation because it means Buster was aware of his status as a possible public figure

and it could mean that he's not only going to have to prove that these defendants knew they were publishing a lie, but that they did so with actual malice. Also, for the record, Buster points out in his lawsuit that these documentaries failed to mention that investigators were also looking into Patrick Wilson and Sean Connolly. Just a quick reminder, Patrick allegedly confessed to his mother's boyfriend that he and Sean had hit Steven with their side view mirror. That confession came shortly after the story about the frustration surrounding Stephen's investigation ran in the fall of 2015 in the Hampton Guardian, and that story for the first

time included the coroner putting it on the record that Stephen was likely hit by a side view mirror. Additionally, Buster claims that he was never notified by any law enforcement entities of any allegations against him related to Stephen Smith's death. It might be the case that Buster himself wasn't contacted, but in September 2015, during an interview with a friend of Buster's, Highway Patrolman Todd Proctor mentioned that he was set to talk to Buster soon and that the Murdochs were well aware that Buster was on their radar. So,

I know law enforcement officers are allowed to lie when interviewing people in their investigation, so it doesn't necessarily mean that this was the case, but it is certainly worth us noting. Okay, last thing I want to mention. You might remember Michael DeWitt's name as the reporter who was allowed to hold a book signing event in a Colleton County courtroom courtesy of Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill. You know, just conducting private business for private profit in a taxpayer space. If I sound irritated when I say that, it's because of the constant abuse Mandy and I had to deal with during the trial and especially during the Becky Hill era when trolls thought nothing of repeatedly

accusing us of having some sort of cozy and conspiratorial and unethical relationship with Becky, the trolls loudly called for Becky's emails and phone logs to be released to show that Mandy and Liz were in on whatever tampering they thought Becky had been doing. Since we had no relationship with Becky before, during or even after the trial, those emails showed nothing of the sort, but Michael Dewitt's name sure was in them. And Michael Dewitt's name sure is part of the ethics investigation into Becky.

And here we are again, after years of those same trolls, accusing us of defaming Buster in our reporting. Somehow it never registers with these people when they're proven wrong over and over. And I know that I sound petty right now, but it is frustrating when you happen to notice that it seems to be much easier and more fun for people to make up lies about women journalists who are just simply doing their jobs, then face the truth about a male journalist that they were holding up to be a shining example of Murdoch-related coverage and who they positioned as a victim any time we spoke out about his previous coverage choices. Anyway, like I said, we're going to talk all about that.

It's our greatest hope right now that Buster's lawsuit will result in solving Stevens' case because again, it's undeniable that the Murdoch name was mentioned dozens of times in the investigation. The defendants in this case are going to want to know why it was mentioned so much that they're going to dig, dig, and dig and who knows what they'll dredge up in their digging. These are some very big money defendants who can afford the type of unflinching, connection-free, politics-free investigation that Stephen's case apparently requires. This lawsuit could be the thing that finally gets Sandy Smith answers about who killed her son.

This week, by the way, will mark three years since SLED opened its investigation into Stephen's death after purportedly discovering information during the course of the Murdoch murders double homicide investigation and Sandy still has no answers. Who knew that there would ever be a scenario where she might end up having Buster Murdoch to thank for finally getting answers. Another quick update we have for you is about the Nautilus lawsuit in federal court. Nautilus is one of two insurance agencies that were sued in 2018 over Gloria Satterfield's death at Moselle. Ellick and Corey stole the entire $4.1 million settlement in that case. Nautilus provided $3.8 million of that and they want their money back. So, two years ago, they filed a lawsuit against Ellick, Corey, Moss & Coon, which used to be Corey's law firm, and Chad Westendorf,

who served as personal representative for the Satterfields at Ellic's Behest and his employer Palmetto Stain Bank. On Tuesday, Judge Richard Gergel issued a 30-page order outlining his decisions after both Nautilus and all the defendants, except for Ellic, filed motions asking him for summary judgment. There is a lot covered in that order. Essentially, Judge Gergel denied Nautilus their motion and granted Chad Westendorf and Palmetto State Bank their motions. He also denied most of Corey's and Moss and Coon's motions. The bottom line with that is it looks like Chad and the bank are effectively off the hook in this case but the judge believes that the questions about Corey and Moss and

Coon's liability are a matter for a jury. Moss and Coon tried to get out of the lawsuit and the judge was like, uh, no. Corey worked for you at the time so this is your problem too. Which makes us ask this question. If Moss and Coon can be held responsible for Corey's actions here, which we think they should, then why wasn't PMPED included as a defendant in this case? Because Elling litigated this case as well, and he did it from the PMPED office using PMPED's resources. How is it that Nautilus argues that Palmetto State Bank should be held responsible for Chad's actions when Corey has already testified that Chad knew nothing about the

scheme, but Nautilus didn't include PMPED whose employee not only knew about the scheme, he played it guilty to masterminding it? It is yet another puzzling example of PMPED being allowed to moonwalk their way out of Elex messes. Judge Gergel, by the way, is the same judge who allowed PMPED to be regarded as victims and therefore deserving of millions of dollars in restitution. Anyway, the biggest takeaway in this order is this. Nautilus knew there was something fishy going on. Here's David with what Judge Gergel wrote about that.

Nautilus opened an investigation into the claim on March 20, 2018. Notwithstanding the myriad hesitations voiced within Nautilus over the course of the yearlong investigation, Nautilus settled the Satterfield Estates claim for $3.8 million following a mediation held on March 22, 2019. Nautilus' adjustor writing, quote, The Lloyd's adjuster and I believe this claim is very questionable end quote. On April 5, 2018, Nautilus' chief claims officer noting, quote, There are some questionable things about the claim end quote.

On May 2, 2018, Nautilus' coverage counsel, John Grantland, writing in a February 23, 2019 email that he quote, smelled a trap, end quote, after Fleming suggested he wanted to take Murdoch's sworn statement during mediation. Nautilus' insurance counsel complaining of quote, worst case of insurance fraud and injustice I have ever heard of, end quote, and, quote, extortion, end quote, following March 22, 2019 mediation. It's stunning, right? This insurance company knew it was being played and still handed over that $3.8

million check to Corey Fleming because $3.8 million was a better deal for them than risking the decision of a Hampton County jury. They used the word extortion. Now, that might seem like hyperbole, but what else would you call it when Elick Murdoch of Murdoch Notoriety is threatening to admit fault in glorious death to his hometown jury, a jury that for generations has been thought to be run by the Murdochs and their cohorts, all in an effort to get at his own insurance policy? The bigger question is why is this kind of thing ever allowed? Why hasn't SLED or the AG's office opened an investigation

into how Hampton County juries are handled? You wanna talk about rumors. There are plenty of those when it comes to what goes down with Hampton County juries. So where is the outrage? Think about it. Did the $3.8 million that Ellic and Corey stole get printed especially for the scheme? No! That money will, for all practical purposes, be paid back by the rest of Nautilus' policyholders. When insurance fraud occurs, the rest of us pay for it in higher premiums and in higher rates of coverage denial. So again, where is the

outrage? Where is the outrage from the Bar Association, from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the Supreme Court? Why haven't the insurance carriers in South Carolina banded together to say enough is enough. Why is it such an open secret and yet no one wants to deal with it once and for all? Nautilus handed over millions of dollars because it was a smarter decision to make when they considered what they all knew to be true about the jury there and they knew better. But then they just went on with their lives and just accepted it as okay. It's not okay. Extortion is a crime. So where are the blue lights? Oh, right. Elec had them on his truck

because our own prosecutor's office allowed him to. Okay, so that's enough Murdoch news for today. We have one quick update in the Calucci case and that's just to say that we've spoken with the South Carolina Attorney General's office and Michael Calucci's retrial is still not scheduled. There were reports floating out there that the case had been docketed for October, but that's not the case and we do not know where that information came from. And we'll be right back. And we'll be right back. Y'all know I'm purposeful in my clubs and subscriptions, and First Leaf deserves to be on the keeper list. It is more than just a wine club. It's like a celebration in every delivery.

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Go to quince.com slash mandy for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash mandy to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dotcom slash mandy Okay, let's talk about where things are in the Micah Francis case. We have confirmed with multiple sources that the FBI's investigation into details surrounding Micah Francis' death

is not only ongoing, but it is heating up. We have confirmed with sources that the FBI is asking people close to Micah to sit for multiple interviews and they are asking questions about J.P. Miller's relationship with Micah leading up to her death. And they are asking for evidence such as text messages to back up claims being made about JP. While it appears the FBI is investigating Solid Rock Church and its allegedly questionable finances, for instance, their fundraising and spending related to their missions abroad, it is clear from our sources that the FBI

is looking into much more than the potential financial crimes when it comes to J.P. Miller. Which is interesting to us because of how insistent law enforcement sources have been that this FBI investigation is not looking into Micah's death. Every time a law enforcement agency could say that to us, they did, including the FBI more than once. But looking into Micah's death

isn't necessarily the same thing as looking into what led to Micah's death. And based on what sources have been telling us about who is being questioned and what they're being asked, it sure does seem like this is a case of semantics. How Micah died might not necessarily be in question, but why she died definitely seems to be on the FBI's table. Like we talked about with Laura Richards

on this week's very important episode of Cup of Justice, coercive control is not a federal crime in the United States, like it is in Canada and the UK. But that doesn't mean that JP immediately escapes all accountability if investigators find that his behavior did in fact bring Micah to a breaking point before her death on April 27th. There is more than one way to peel a potato, Micah to a breaking point before her death on April 27th.

There is more than one way to peel a potato, as we have discussed many times on this podcast. There is a reason why Elick Murdoch was charged with dozens of financial crimes before the murders. Police often use low-hanging fruit charges like financial crimes that have a clear paper trail to get witnesses and suspects to crack under pressure about the bigger crimes. While we are not accusing JP of any crimes on this podcast, to be clear, and we wanna reiterate that he has not been charged

in Micah's death, nor was he ever charged with abusing her, I think it is worth mentioning that there are laws in place that the federal government could use in their investigation. Laws that, according to our own research into the allegations being made against him by Micah's team, could apply here. For instance, there is a federal harassment law in the United States. Here is David with that. of the United States, with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under

surveillance or intimidate another person, and in the course of or as a result of such travel or presence engages in conduct that a. Places that person in reasonable fear of the death of or serious bodily injury to, one, that person, two, an immediate family member, three, a spouse or intimate partner of that person. So, for example, it sounds like to us that if the FBI finds evidence on a man who used tracking devices on his estranged wife's car to stalk her as she crossed state lines because she felt so threatened and scared by his pattern of harassing behavior that maybe that man could be charged with stalking by the U.S. Attorney's Office and face up to five years

in federal prison, which is something. The other thing is a lot of this depends on the FBI agents, the US Attorney's Office, and their willingness to think a little bit outside of the box when it comes to how these laws might apply. Because again, not all abuse is physical, and unfortunately, legislators have generally done the absolute minimum on that front,

nevermind addressing the idea that mental abuse can be just as, if not more, damaging. In Cup of Justice 83 with filmmaker Aaron Lee Carr, who directed and produced the HBO documentary I Love You Now Die about the Michelle Carter case in Massachusetts, we spoke about the case and how it became one of those outside-of-the-box situations for prosecutors. They had no clear state law to follow with her, because they believed it was her influence that ultimately led to her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, taking his own life.

And there was no law that directly addressed that circumstance. They ended up charging Carter, who was a teenager at the time with manslaughter, after police found text messages of her encouraging Roy to kill himself up until just moments before his death. The case was unique in the sense that it was the first of its kind. The idea that somebody could be convicted of manslaughter in a death that she did not directly have a hand in or was nowhere near when it occurred. The court found in that case that while Carter was not physically present at the scene, her

verbal conduct, quote, overcame the victim's willpower to live and therefore caused the suicide. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison. While the Carter case was much different than this one in the sense that it did not include allegations of abuse and harassment, it was a landmark case that showed our courts can successfully prosecute for people's digital communications, not physical actions, when it comes to suicide. And by the way, I'm still not comfortable calling this case a suicide, and I'm not sure when I will reach that point.

Everything I have learned about Micah and her life directly conflicts with what police say that she did on April 27th, 2024. A few weeks ago, when we were in Myrtle Beach, we retraced Micah's steps that day from her apartment to Dick's Pawn Shop, to a seemingly random gas station where she got an energy drink and more than half of a tank of gas, to Lumber River State Park, where she was found dead in the water. The trip was a chilling experience and like most of my trips and investigative journalism left me with more questions than answers but it also left me with a strong feeling in

my gut saying something is really wrong here. I don't know why she would have packed a sandwich to go on a trip to end her life. I don't know why she would have packed a sandwich to go on a trip to end her life. I don't know why she dressed for work that day, only to change her mind at the last minute and go to a pawn shop instead. I don't know how she apparently passed a background check so quickly from the same store that told us it takes from 15 minutes to several days to clear. And, according to the worker, if you were ever involuntarily committed, as her family says that she was, the feds will deny your application. I also don't know why she chose to go to a gas station completely out of the way of her route.

I don't know why she chose this very random state park in a rough and rural area. I don't know why it took Park Rangers so long to locate her when the area she was in was not big, nor was it difficult to get to. I just don't know how this happened. And the more I think about her movements that day, the more I hope that her phone data is somewhere safe and secure and under serious examination. Who was she talking to that day? Did she tell anyone that she was feeling threatened? What really happened to Micah after she left her apartment in her work uniform with her lunch packed? All of it on its own is already hard to reconcile

and to understand. But on top of that, we have Micah's estranged husband, J.P. Miller, making Micah's death a whole lot more complicated. As we told you all in the last episode, J.P. has been making and sending videos to a content creator on TikTok named True Crime Rhee to give his side of the story.

Now normally we hate this kind of true crime content. JP obviously has a right to share his thoughts on things and to defend himself in the public eye, but we don't generally like to allow seeming narcissists to use our platform to spin their narrative when we already have enough facts in the case to show that the person telling the quote other side of the story lacks credibility. But in this case, JP is doing the FBI's work for them and appears to be entrapping himself in lies with a narrative that doesn't make sense when you compare it to what is already known about the case. While JP promised to deliver 350 plus pieces of evidence showing the quote real Micah Miller over a week ago, his now five-part TikTok series has been a long-winded

bust. Thus far, it essentially shows him to be a person who accuses other people of perpetrating the same bad behavior that he's literally being accused of in that moment. I don't know if anyone has ever explained to JP what the internet means when they say that they want receipts, but someone needs to tell him that a sleepy five-part series of an overconfident, mediocre madman is not it. To this day, JP has been the only person who claims to have knowledge of Micah's diagnoses and the only person who says he witnessed behavior that would point to what would be serious mental disorders, ones that would have been apparent to those who spent any amount of time with Micah. And yet he has provided no receipts, there's no prescription records and no doctors' notes. In the meantime, Micah herself, through her family, attorney, and journals, is accusing JP of

drugging her and trying to gaslight her into believing she was sick. The most telling part of these videos is the big picture that we're seeing of JP as a man who wants to muddy the waters to make it look deep. Remember, JP is a pastor who has been accused of having inappropriate sexual encounters with teenagers, drugging Micah on multiple occasions, harassing, stalking, and mentally abusing Micah to the point her life ended. Oh, and having multiple affairs. He's been accused of a lot of things, but in our opinion, innocent men start by refuting the biggies, right? JP has been given the TikTok microphone and so far he's just used it

to be petty and manipulative, to float threats out there that appear to be designed to silence people. In these videos, JP isn't even really trying to debunk or disprove anything specifically. Instead, it seems like he's building a false narrative that completely contradicts a slew of police reports and court documents. In the TikTok series, JP is trying to convince the world that he had a loving relationship with Micah, that he never abused her, and that really the only problem in their marriage was her and her mental problems. Not his. By the way, this is a man who told his church a few months ago he was taking 800

milligrams of lithium a day. In an attempt to show quote-unquote proof of this so-called loving relationship, for instance, JP spent two videos talking about tattoos that Micah had gotten for him and vice versa. Who wants to tell him that tattoos can't cover up the dysfunction in relationships? He spends another video talking about the amount he paid for Micah's funeral. You know, because men who paid for their wise funerals, I guess, could not have also hurt them? Those two things could not possibly be true at the same time. As disgusting as the videos are to watch, they do provide insight into JP's twisted

idea of love and relationships. And more importantly, they are providing documented lies to the FBI. This part we want to play for you because it gives you an idea of this sticky situation. She would sometimes forget who I was or forget that I was her husband. She'd forget who she was, forget that she was my wife. Sometimes she'd forget who her family is, things like that. On March 11th, remember that date because you super sleuths out there are going to need to know that date for the future, but on March 11 something happened that kind of forever changed the course of our lives and she went really deep into the schizophrenia and was delusional and accusing me of

certain things, slashing tires or sending a naked picture or stalking her or things like that that I didn't do. And I found an Apple AirTag in my car, in my truck that week, and I assumed it was hers because I would keep seeing her pop up where I was at. March 11th is turning out to be a very important date in this story. When you look at the totality of the police reports and court documents filed, that date appears to have been a breaking point for Micah. Around 1.20 that morning, Micah called Horry County Police and told them she was at Spring Maid Pier in Myrtle Beach and was about to be on her way home when she heard a tire pop and found a razor in it. She told police that this was the second time in a week where this had happened and she believed that it was JP. The Horry County Police report mentions zero attempts at trying to investigate these claims,

by the way, but Officer Joseph Barrington decided immediately that, quote, evidence was not sufficient enough to prove that JP had put the wire in the tire. If we lived in a world where women were believed, if police were trained to identify coercive control and if police could have seen identify coercive control, and if police could have seen what a desperate situation Micah was in at the time and at the very least hear her out, interview JP, look for cameras at Spring Maid Pierd, etc. etc. We believe Micah would be alive today. Instead, they told her there wasn't anything they could do, which is basically like telling

her the system would not be on her side in this fight to win her freedom. So March 11th, the day when JP claimed she was quote, deep in her schizophrenic episode, was also when Micah filed for a restraining order with the Surfside Beach Magistrate where she signed an affidavit claiming that JP had harassed her three different times in the past two weeks. On March 3rd when he allegedly and creepily texted her while she was eating oysters at Wicked Tuna with her family and allegedly said enjoy your oysters. Again on March 4th when JP allegedly put a razor blade in her tire while she was at a county clerk's office. And a third time earlier that morning at Spring Maid Pier. And then again, I wanna remind you

that the system failed Micah by not granting her that restraining order. The system again told her, there's no hope for you here. The system saw the word pastor and let everything else be seen through JP's lens. In the weeks that followed, the harassment from JP appears to have escalated according to police reports filed by

Micah. On March 14th and 24th, she reported JP to Myrtle Beach PD after trackers were discovered on both her and her roommate's cars, which she had been using at that time. On April 8th, she reported that JP posted a nude photo of her on Facebook. And on April 15th, she reported another tracker on her vehicle, which she believed to have been put there by JP. And on April 15th, she reported another tracker on her vehicle, which she believed to have been put there by JP. And that time Myrtle Beach police actually refused to even log it into evidence because they said it sounded like a civil matter. It seems like no law enforcement officer was ever considering the totality of these reports. Instead, it was a thousand paper cuts over and over.

That April 15th incident apparently was the last straw for Micah, and she filed for divorce that day. Two weeks later, she was found dead. The timeline here is very, very important, and details are very, very important. In the TikTok video made just a few days ago, JP claimed that Micah made all of this up. The posting of the photo, the slashing of the tires, the tracking devices. The problem is that JP himself has already admitted to all of this in writing. According to News Nation, reporter Rich McHugh has an apology email for the naked photo where JP said to Micah, quote, it was only up for an hour. Another apology email from JP to Micah saying, I'm sorry for damaging

your car tires, etc. And finally, a text from JP himself saying I put trackers on her car to know if she was going to a gun store because she kept trying to get a gun for the past few months. know if she was going to a gun store because she kept trying to get a gun for the past few months. You guys, he has already admitted to all of these things that he is now claiming Micah made up during her episodes. This is not a he said she said situation. It's a she said she provided evidence. Police ignored her. He admitted to it. And now that the walls are crumbling in around him, he's saying it didn't happen. JP appears to have a lot of evidence stacked against him right now and a lot of people in his life who are actually armed with receipts. At this point, the value of his word is going to mean a

whole lot in this investigation. These TikTok videos, as stomach-churning as they may be, are chipping away at any credibility he had. Remember, when we spoke to Micah's best friend Charlotte in episode 51, and she said the day after Micah's death, she spoke to JP and he said something to her that he noticed she was on her way to Lumberton the day before? Charlotte said that he spoke to her in a way that indicated to her that he knew Micah went to Dick's pawn shop and in real time knew she was on her way to Lumberton and he was

wondering if she was on her way to see Charlotte in Virginia. What if he was tracking her that day of her death? We have confirmed that the FBI is looking into that part of the case, by the way. In his TikTok videos, JP wants the world to believe that he was doing everything he could to quote keep Micah alive in the months leading up to her death. If he really wants to clear his name, why doesn't he start with the obvious receipts that we want to see? Like where exactly was he on the day that Micah died?

Was he really with another woman? How does he think that can be characterized as trying to help keep Micah alive? We know he was spotted in Charleston earlier that day and we know that his truck, not necessarily him, was spotted in Horry County minutes before Micah called 911. But we would like to see more evidence on exactly what he was doing that day. And we hope the FBI is also going to question JP's first wife, Allison, who not only has said that Micah reached out to her for advice on how to leave JP and deal with the fallout, making Allison privy to some of what Micah was going through, she's also already put it on the record that JP has a history of mental illness that's

only gotten worse. Nowhere in her affidavit did Allison indicate that she believed Micah to be mentally ill herself. It's yet another piece of evidence that JV's account about Micah's mental issues is only as credible as his TikTok videos. And we will be right back. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney Plus. In season three, Carmy and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star with Golden Globe and Emmy wins, the show starring Jeremy Allen White, I.O. Debris and Mattie Matheson is ready to heat up screens once again.

All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney Plus. Over the past few episodes, we have talked about the insight we have been getting from court documents and connection to JP's first divorce, which was filed in the summer of 2015 by his first wife, Allison Williams, after his affair with Micah was discovered. We've also talked about the timeline of Micah's divorce, how Micah filed in October 2023, citing adultery, then consented to dropping the case in February of this year, only to have JP immediately turn around and file his own motion for protection, which was later dropped. That was all before Mica finally filed for a no-fault divorce in April, shortly before

her death. The timeline helps give context to the other things that were going on in Micah's life at the time. In terms of the harassment she was reporting, and in terms of the pressure her friends and family say she was getting from JP and other church members to drop her divorce case. That context is the word adultery appearing in her original filing. In both Allison and Micah's cases, it was clear that JP's reputation at the church and his ability to keep tithers coming through the door was and is of utmost importance to

him. In Allison's case, she originally kept JP's affair out of the courtroom because, according to her affidavit, she didn't want his career to be further affected. She didn't want the church to lose any more members. It wasn't until JP ignored two court orders and went months without paying her the alimony she needed to pay her mortgage that she gave the court the full picture of who JP really was. In Micah's case, she elected to include the adultery. Why? Was it to hurt JP? To embarrass him?

Maybe. But there is another potential reason. By citing his adultery, she was speeding up with divorce in South Carolina. It's not just about the divorce, it's about the relationship. And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina. And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina. And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina. And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina. And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina. And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina.

And that's the problem with divorce in South Carolina. to live apart from him for a full year before being allowed to have him out of her life. And that is the problem with divorce in South Carolina. You have to live apart for a year, which is expensive. Especially for a woman who made pennies working for her husband at his church when he wasn't firing her and rehiring her on a whim, as Micah's attorney said that he did. So women in abusive situations in their marriages are faced with a very difficult challenge. We could go on for days about this. Divorce is difficult even for couples with amicable splits. Add in a wealth discrepancy, power differential, and long-term unreported abuse and women in South Carolina are at an extreme disadvantage when trying to leave a partner who does not

agree that they should be divorced. That said, these women weren't just divorcing JP, they were divorcing his church, which both women have referred to as being synonymous with him. They weren't just divorcing the church. In some way, they were using the only shred of power they had in this situation, the good pastor's weak spot, his reputation in the church versus what they knew to be intimately true about him as leverage. But like with those videos, JP couldn't help himself either. In both cases resulted in unflattering and concerning details about his life being put

on the record. He is not alone. In fact, there is a bit of a pattern here. History repeating itself. In addition to getting the divorce files related to JP, we also have the divorce filings in JP's mother's divorce from his father, the Reverend Wayne Miller. We have told you a lot about JP's father and his history as a pastor in South Carolina. He was on an upward trajectory in his career

as a budding televangelist, who was also trying to make a name for himself nationally and internationally, when he was accused of sexual improprieties involving the husbands of Bible college students in the 1980s. Since then, he has pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an undercover police officer

in a Myrtle Beach bathhouse in 2006, and he pleaded guilty to essentially enslaving some of his Bible college students, making them work for little to no money. That was in 2014. Wayne reportedly works with JP at Solid Rock and continues to go on missions with a variety of reported allegations against him. We are working to confirm those before reporting further.

So that's Wayne. Let's talk about what went down in Wayne's incredibly messy divorce from JP's mother Susan which was granted in 2002. According to court records, JP's mother married JP's father in April 1974. They had three children. JP is the oldest. He was born in 1979. He has a brother who was born four years later and a sister who was born when he was 11.

Now, the first thing I want to mention about this divorce is the odd trick that seems to have been played. Wayne Miller's birth name is Reginald Wayne Miller, or at least that's the name that was used in news reports, advertising for his church, and other publications. And it's the name the federal government used to prosecute him in 2014. That's Reginald with a D at the end, and it's the name the federal government used to prosecute him in 2014. That's Reginald, with a D at the end, and Wayne, with a Y after the A. But in this divorce, he's pretty consistently referred to as Reginald without the D, and occasionally referred to as Reginald-Wayne without the D or the Y. It's either a persistent misspelling that they just collectively decided to go with and not

fix or it's a trick we've seen played by the good old boys in the past, where they intentionally misspell their own names to avoid being found in public searches. For instance, Elick Murdoch was known to sometimes leave a space between the M and the U in Murdoch so that his last name appeared to be Erdok. So that's the first thing we want to note about this case, that misspellings like this could prevent the public and the media from finding it. They're not exactly creative or particularly prohibitive misspellings though, so it's just worth mentioning when we talk about how important a mutation is and was to these men.

When Susan filed for divorce, she was around 48 years old and Wayne was around 53. Though the divorce was granted in 2002, the case file includes extensive filings in connection to child support all the way up until 2009. But we're going to get into that in a future episode. Let's first talk about Susan's claims against Reginald with a D. Though Susan was not seeking a fault divorce. And like we said, it's a speedier divorce based on claims of adultery, addiction, or abuse. Otherwise, the couple has to live apart for a year before getting granted a divorce in South Carolina. She did not hold back in an affidavit she swore in 2001. J.P.'s mother

told the court that she met her husband when she was in high school and he was a pastor at a church. Sound familiar? According to the affidavit, Wayne noticed her and asked about her. After Susan graduated from high school, she did go on to college and during her junior year, Wayne asked her to marry him. She said, I wanted to finish college, but I decided I loved him more. She said, I wanted to finish college, but I decided I loved him more. In her affidavit, she accuses Wayne of having a temper. Again, sound familiar? Specifically, she says, quote, he showed his temper at my parents' house, pointed his finger in their face, and slammed the door so hard we thought it would break off the

hinges. My parents did not want me to marry him, but Wayne told me I had to choose between them or him. Again, sound familiar? Not only do we know that Micah's family had problems with her relationship with JP and her subsequent decision to marry him, we've been sharing texts with you in which JP regarded Micah's decision to go to her sister's house after their epic fight in November 2022 as Micah choosing her sister over JP. He accused Micah of being a bad wife because of that. And according to sources, this was the theme. JP seeing Micah as choosing her family over him.

Let's not forget that incredibly weird line in her obituary in which JP noted that Micah was so close to her family with all those emphatic O's. Even someone who knows nothing about this case could have read that and picked up on the vitriol contained in that phrasing. They could pick up on Micah's relationship to her family being a sore point for whoever wrote that Obed. And all indications are that JP wrote it or had a hand in its writing. Okay, back to Susan and Wayne. Susan says she quit school and married Wayne. Her parents were so upset she said that they refused to attend the ceremony. At the time of her marriage, Susan said she worked as a typist at a factory. Quote, Wayne would sleep late and would

go to his little church which he started himself with only a small group of people. He was discharged from the United Methodist Church in Evergreen, South Carolina. I never knew why they let him go. There were rumors but I was too much in love ever to believe there was any truth to them. She does not say what those rumors were but she does say that after six months of having her own income, Wayne told her he wanted her to quit her job so she could spend more time with him and help him as a pastor's wife in building his ministry. What should sound familiar here is this. Having separate incomes gives women more power in their relationships and not just economically. I say this without judgment, by the way, I know plenty of people in safe and fulfilling relationships

in which one partner is the sole breadwinner for the family. I bring this up just to show the pattern. When a couple decides that one of the two isn't going to work, it can be a team decision, one that's best for their family and their goals, but it can also be a tool to keep the person who isn't working in a place of servitude and a place where they're not able to ask

questions or express discontent with poor behavior. In other words, it can be a tool to keep a bird in its cage to keep that person from being able to leave the relationship. Allison worked for JP's church for very little money. When his affair broke up their marriage, she had nothing. Micah worked for the church for very little money. When his affair broke up their marriage, she had nothing. Micah worked for the church for a little money. Again, she had nothing and what she did have, JP appears to have taken from her, according to police reports and journal entries that were shared by her attorney in Micah's list. Micah's team has accused JP of financial abuse, which includes accusations that he took Micah's name off their bank accounts and then expected her to pay her phone and medical bills.

It also includes JP hiring and rehiring Micah at his whim as perhaps a way to lord his power over her financially, according to Micah's list. We've also seen text messages that indicate JP might have considered his financial role in their relationship to be one that should come with a certain amount of transactional control over Micah, using his position as bill payer against her when he was in his feelings. We told you about Micah's and JP's big fight in November 2022, after JP asked Micah if she had to kiss a woman, who would it be? And then he got angry at her for eventually having an answer. And we told you how she fled to Gaffney to be with her sister and how she said she did not feel safe being at home with him, but he really wanted her to come home. During that night,

in addition to threatening to come to Gaffney armed and ready and the police being called, JP texted Micah's best friend Charlotte saying, then she leaves while I'm already feeling like the smallest man in the world. The only thing I'm good for is to pay her bills. He was angry that Micah would not bend to his will, and that is where his mind went. Back to Susan and Wayne. Susan testified that from the get-go, Wayne had little time for her or their relationship. She also indicated that he didn't seem to care if they were intimate. And when they did spend some time together, it was with one of his friends, either a young

Bible college student or a young man. She said, quote, Wayne insisted that I ride in the back of the car behind him while he and his friend rode in the front seat. Wayne even started going out at night with his, quote, friend, whoever it was at the time, leaving me alone. I wondered why I quit working, just to be his quote servant. She said that Wayne wanted to be well known as a pastor and a speaker and began traveling. She said that he preferred taking a male friend or a Bible school student with him rather than her.

Now again, I want to note that this is Susan's version of their marriage. We're going to discuss Wayne's version of their marriage in a future episode, as well as issues leading up to and after their divorce. Susan says that she worked hard at being a pastor's wife. Again, there's that phrase, right? Good wife. We hear that a lot in JP's case.

JP accused Micah of not being a good wife, a godly wife. We hear that a lot in JP's case. JP accused Micah of not being a good wife, a godly wife. In their wedding vows, Micah vowed to give 100% of herself to JP and to his endeavors. She was offering all of herself to him. JP's vow was to lead her to Jesus. to him. JP's vow was to lead her to Jesus. It was the perfect umbrella vow for him because according to sources, records, and Micah's list, it allowed him to weaponize Micah's faith against her so that she would bend to his wishes in any given moment. In her affidavit, Susan said that she started taking piano lessons because she thought that

it would please Wayne. She wanted to become Wayne's image of what a good pastor's wife should be. Susan said Wayne insisted she wear dresses to church, so he bought her pretty clothes. But also, she said he called her too fat and said that she wasn't a turn-on. She testified that he would use phrases like, if you were woman enough, then he would want to have sex with her. She said that she was humiliated and that their sexual problems were always her fault. Again, does that sound familiar?

According to Micah's list, JP told Micah that if she did not engage in his sexual fantasies, that it would be her fault if he sought out sex workers or other partners. In Susan's affidavit, Susan said that Wayne, quote, "'loved being in the public eye and thrived on people admiring him.'"

And here again is another thing JP has in common with his father, if his TikTok videos are of any indication. Susan's affidavit also gives us insight into what JP's childhood might've been like. According to his mother, his father was not around very much and when he was home, he was too tired or busy. I wanna again remind you that this affidavit was used to get custody, child support, and alimony. Susan likely wanted to demonstrate to the court that she was emotionally abused

in her marriage and that her relationship with her kids was stronger than his. What we're sharing with you is sworn testimony, but it's one person's perspective. In her affidavit, Susan said that her children became her whole life. She saw herself as both their mother and father. When a child awakened during the night, Susan said Wayne would make her go into another bedroom to keep from disturbing his sleep. Which reminds me, this is another thing JP and his father have in common. According to sources, Micah felt like she had to walk on eggshells at times because JP is a really late sleeper and if she disturbed his sleep in any way, he would get angry at her. Now, Susan said that she began sleeping separately from Wayne because

they weren't having sex anyway and she grew tired of him putting her down. She also accused Wayne of hitting her once or twice during their arguments. Quote, my husband did not need or want me except to wait on him and be his servant. He would lay on the couch and want me to wait on him. Susan said that Wayne forbade their children from celebrating Halloween, Santa Claus, or the Easter bunny and that even though she disagreed with this, she went along with it out of fear.

He was the head of the household, she said, and she was afraid of him. In addition to that, Susan said that, quote, a few times Wayne called me in front of the church people and said, embarrassing and humiliating things to me. Since I had not finished college and little work experience, I had no real good job skills. Therefore, I endured Wayne's behavior." So, that should sound familiar to you. JP was known to do the same thing to Micah. His first wife, Allison Williams, told the court that he even did this with their children as witness. He used his position on the pulpit to embarrass Micah and, according to Micah's list, to bully her into seeing things his way in their marriage,

including sexually. In Susan's affidavit, she outlines what could be considered financial abuse in their relationship. She accused Wayne of opening credit cards in her name when he ran out of credit on his own cards, and she accused him of making her sign papers, which she only later learned was a second mortgage on their house. But Wayne has always felt he was smarter than I. Once he threatened to take away my car keys if I did not do as he said. Yet another similarity.

Not only did Micah tell police that JP was keeping her car from her, Micah's list included an accusation that JP would hide Micah's purse and keys from her to keep her from leaving the house. Susan's affidavit also includes accusations that Wayne was physically abusive with JP, beating him so badly one time with a leather belt on a trip to Disney World when he was about five or six years old that there were

bloody stripes covering both of JP's legs. And after another incident that left marks on JP, Susan said her mother told her that if she saw any more marks on him, any evidence of these beatings again, that she was going to call social services on them. But Susan said the beatings didn't stop. And when JP was a teenager, the police would have to be called to their homes because of the fights Wayne would get into with him. She recounted an incident in which Wayne allegedly choked and slapped and hit JP's younger brother. She said Wayne once allowed a teacher at their academy to put the younger boy beside her desk to face the other children while she ridiculed him and called him slow.

These accounts give us more insight into JP's upbringing. And again, Wayne has never been charged with abusing his children, though he was accused of having a violent temper in his federal indictment in 2014. And JP has not publicly claimed abuse from his father, physical or sexual, at least not in anything that we have seen so far. JP has also referred to his effing dad as a quote-unquote homo in text messages,

which says a lot about how JP apparently views the gay community. But back to the abuse. If this account is true, it speaks to a potential cycle of abuse. At least meritally. There were no accusations of JP physically abusing his own children in Allison Williams' filing with the court. She did, however, say her children did not want to be forced to be with JP, and she included a video in which JP can be seen during a custody transfer carrying off a very upset child who is screaming, crying, and heading him to be let down.

Micah's List accuses JP of getting physical with her in ways that would not leave a mark. And Allison's Affidavit accuses JP of admitting to church elders that he had inappropriate sexual encounters with girls under the age of 16 at his church. Now in her affidavit, Susan said that her parents bought 90% of her children's clothes because when it came time to buy them, Wayne would say that he didn't have the money. I want to remind you that during this time, Wayne had one of the largest charismatic churches in the state in a five day a week television show called Good Morning Jesus. Charismatic churches, by the way, are a form of Christianity that believe in

speaking in tongues and divine healing. And at that time Wayne also ran a Bible college. Susan is saying here that they were hurting for money to the detriment of their children. But when it came time for Wayne to take a trip for a speaking engagement or even a vacation to Bermuda, Wayne always found a way to pay for it, including charging it. In fact, she accuses Wayne of telling people that she was responsible for all of the charges and said that Wayne used their church credit card for personal items, like trips to Charleston, cruises to Bermuda, gas, dinner with friends, and flowers for a yard belonging to one of his male friend's employees?

Speaking of that, in her testimony, Susan implied heavily that Wayne was having homosexual affairs on her. She recounted a time when she woke up in the middle of the night and could not find Wayne. The next morning she learned that Wayne was in one of the bedrooms of her house with a quote, handsome young minister who had attended our Bible college two years earlier. It was shortly after this she said, two Bible college students told her that her husband tried to feel their husbands genitals and tried to wrestle them or get on top of them when they were on speaking engagements together. Huh.

Susan said in her affidavit, quote, I think I was in total shock and my world began slowly crumbling. I was devastated and wondered just what kind of person had I married. A few months after this, in the late 1980s, she kept hearing more rumors, and WPDE aired a five-part segment about Wayne's alleged sexual advances on men at his church. She said, quote, The families in our neighborhood began talking about us, and the things they said embarrassed my children so much. My sons lost their friends and became lonely,

as no mothers would even let their children come to my house again." Eventually, she said, they had to move from Florence to Myrtle Beach. She said she considered leaving Wayne at that time, but felt that he needed help. Quote, we covered up his mistakes in Florence, hoping no one would ever find out.

Wayne told me that if I would stay, he would go to counseling. So after that, she said her marriage improved somewhat, and then they had their third child. Around that time, they were living off the profit made from selling their house in Florence. She said Wayne continued to keep her from working, but that she had begun taking classes at a college until Wayne decided not to pay for them anymore. She said she encouraged Wayne to become a real estate agent at that time and said that when she expressed a desire

to learn a marketable skill, Wayne and his mother suggested that she work at Bojangles. Instead, Wayne started a new Bible college and church. Quote, Wayne received an honorary doctorate degree from Indiana Bible University. And ever since that time has requested that he be called Dr. Miller. We have a lot more to share about this, but I wanted to leave you with one more piece of insight from Susan's affidavit about Wayne and Susan's marriage. At one point in their relationship,

Wayne began to suspect Susan of having an affair, which she admits to. She said she had a short relationship with the former boyfriend of a friend of hers. During that time, she said Wayne had connected a tape recorder to their phone unbeknownst to her and placed the recorder under her bed. All her calls were being recorded, she said, until an Ori telephone company worker came to service their phone and found the recorder.

Again, sound familiar? JP stands accused of keeping tabs on Micah, tracking her whereabouts with GPS, hacking into her iCloud account, email, and social media accounts, as well as taking videos of her in private settings that he then allegedly threatened to use against her. This is all just to show that the horrible behaviors JP has been accused of in his marriage to Micah did not just materialize out of thin air. They appear to have been modeled for him and adapted from the very dysfunctional example of marriage that he had growing up, at least from what we see according to these court

documents and what we've according to these court documents and what we've read in old news reports. The idea of a preacher being one way in front of his congregation and another way at home and in his personal relationships is not a new one, but it is important to call it out. At the heart of the Micah Francis case is power. Micah felt powerless because in many ways, almost all of them, she was. Even her faith appears to have been used against her, making any power that she felt in her relationship with God a tenuous thing. Micah did not just feel powerless, it appears that she was made to feel that way, that any avenue that she had for autonomy,

even as a part of a couple, had road bumps and roadblocks, put there by her husband, according to sources and documents. As we continue to talk about changing the ways law enforcement responds to domestic abuse, in the ways it gets defined by law, in the ways it gets defined by law, in the ways it gets prosecuted. As we continue to talk about empowering women through calling

out the legal and justice systems every time they're failed by them, we also need to be talking about the roots of abuse. It is not news that abuse is cyclical, that abusers are often victims of abuse themselves. An abuser's past is no excuse for the abuser's present, obviously. But there is only one way to break the cycle, and that is through accountability. Micah's case continues to be such an important one, because Micah was and is not alone. But she felt that way, as do many women experiencing the types of abuses associated with coercive control.

A lot of that feeling comes with the discovery that the legal and justice systems do not have their backs. The first step to changing that is to call that out every single time. The second step is to not back down. We are encouraged by what we're hearing about the FBI's investigation into this case. We hope it is a sign that law enforcement is starting to think outside of the box when it comes to their rigid understanding about what abuse looks like. box when it comes to their rigid understanding about what abuse looks like. Because until they do, there will be a next time. There will be yet another woman dragged down by the system who reaches the point where

she feels like she has nowhere to turn. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. The justice system can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. We all want a drink from the same cup of justice, and it starts with learning about our legal system. My name is Mandi Matney, and together with journalist Liz Farrell and world-renowned

attorney Eric Bland, we create the perfect trifecta of legal expertise, journalistic integrity and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. At Derek Bland, we create the perfect trifecta of legal expertise, journalistic integrity, and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. We all encounter a part of our justice systems at one point, so why not get prepared while being entertained with tales from the newsroom and the courtroom? Cup of Justice has amazing special guests like Sheryl Crow, Vinnie Politan, Emily D. Baker, and other experts to share their take on the bright side of the truth.

Lunashark Media invites you to gain knowledge, insight, and tools to hold your own or hold public agencies accountable. Search for Cup of Justice wherever you get your podcast or visit cupofjusticepod.com