by Liz Farrell
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina “pastor” JP Miller now stands formally accused of raping a 15-year-old female church member in 1998 and of sexually assaulting her again in 2023.
On Tuesday morning, attorney Randy Hood of McGowan, Hood, Felder and Phillips law firm in Rock Hill, South Carolina, filed a complaint against Miller in Horry County Circuit Court on behalf of his client, whom he identified as Jane Doe No. 1.
Hood spoke about the case in a TikTok video, saying in part, “In my case, Jane Doe alleges that in 1998 John-Paul Miller sexually assaulted her at Cathedral Church while it was being run by his father Reginald Wayne Miller. She also alleges that in 2023, he sexually assaulted her again. This case involves complex issues involving repressed memory and not understanding what happened to you until much later.”
Allendale attorney Mark Tinsley has also joined Hood as part of Jane Doe 1’s legal team. Tinsley’s work helped expose Alex Murdaugh’s exploitation of the probate system and his theft of client funds.
The 43-page civil filing names John-Paul Miller, his father, and their churches (Solid Rock Ministries, Inc and All Nations Cathedral Church formerly known as Cathedral Baptist Church of the Grand Strand, Inc.). The lawsuit alleges that the Millers “engaged in sexual abuse and predatory conduct—often targeting minors.”
For nearly a year, Myrtle Beach pastor JP Miller has been at the center of an FBI investigation following the April 2024 death of his estranged wife Mica Francis — who was found dead in a North Carolina swamp last year. While Francis’ death was ruled a suicide, evidence has shown a pattern of alleged abuse from JP leading up to her death. Mica’s death has inspired domestic violence awareness advocates around the world to push for coercive control laws in South Carolina and beyond.
This is not the first time the disgraced Myrtle Beach pastor has been accused of sexual abuse. In Mica’s List — the allegations published from Mica’s diaries and other evidence by Mica’s attorney Regina Ward — JP was accused of demanding Mica to have sex with him while she was hospitalized, forcing her perform sexual acts against her will and demanding that she watch him in sexual acts all while preaching on Sundays that it was Mica’s job as a woman to submit.
The lawsuit alleges that Jane Doe was 15 years old in 1998 when JP Miller raped her inside the church building at 803 Howard Avenue, former home of Solid Rock Ministries. She also alleges that JP Miller sexually assaulted her again when she encountered him in Myrtle Beach in 2023.
As for Reginald Wayne Miller, JP’s father, Jane Doe 1 says in part that, “Defendant RWM and other unnamed members of Cathedral and Solid Rock knew of JPM’s propensity to spend improper amounts of time alone with minors by himself or engaging in sexual misconduct.”
According to multiple sources with knowledge of Jane Doe’s case, there may be additional victims of sexual assault and molestation who are considering action against JP and Wayne.
Generally speaking, sexual violence cases that involve church leaders can be complex because of the nature of the abusers’ spiritual roles in young church members’ lives and the weaponization of victims’ belief in God.
Fear of retaliation can be one factor that helps alleged abusers keep victims silent. Other factors can include victims’ worry that they’ll be mischaracterized in the public eye when the complexities of what are often coercively controlled relationships with their abusers get used by the accused in defense arguments.
Add to that complexity, the age of victims at the time of their abuse. Any victim who was a minor at the time of their sexual abuse was a child. And as children, no matter how they might have been manipulated by their abuser at time — or since that time — they did not have the ability to consent.
According to an expert in the field of sexual trauma, adults who were sexually assaulted as children might experience confusion over what happened to them because of how they regarded their abuser at the time. For instance, if they liked their older abuser or even had a crush on the older abuser, they might grapple over questions of consent and whether they had given it when, in reality, they legally could not have. Legally, morally and ethically, the responsibility was always on the adult not to engage in sexual behavior with a minor.
Historically — for instance with widespread accusations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church — the decision to come forward can feel safer after the first person makes their allegations public.
Jane Doe is asking for a jury trial to determine damages.
Previous Sexual Abuse Allegations
According to an affidavit signed by JP Miller’s ex-wife Alison Williams, JP Miller had been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior with minors in 2015 — and Solid Rock church elders knew about this.
In the document signed last year, Alison Williams said in 2015 she learned about JP’s inappropriate behavior with minor female members of the church and she went to the girls and asked them to come forward. According to Williams, the girls told her what happened but said they were too scared of JP to tell police and testify in court, according to the affidavit.
Around that same time those allegations came to light, JP’s affair with Mica was also made known to church members. According to Alison’s affidavit, the elders at the church wanted JP to step down temporarily to get treatment. The church council, relying on amended bylaws that gave them the authority to do this, ordered JP to do so. But after they voted, JP then held a meeting and informed them that the new bylaws were invalid and according to the old bylaws he had 100 percent decision-making authority.
This scared Allison — realizing she could not rely on anyone at Solid Rock to hold JP Miller accountable. So she went to the police.
“When I learned they were too fearful to report JP, I went to the police department for the purpose of making a report and requesting an investigation,” Allison said in the legal document. “However, I was in essence told by police officials that nobody would believe me because JP was a well-known pastor and we were in the middle of a divorce.”
The police apparently weren’t even receptive to hearing about the potential and apparently underreported abuse happening at an area church.
Here’s what Alison says happened next in 2015: “I began to realize the power JP seemed to have over leaders and officials in our community, and based upon having limited power, there was no way for me to ensure JP was held accountable and prevented from continuing to victimize innocent people. Given the circumstances, I decided the best way for me to protect our children was to reach an agreement with JP that contained terms I believed would ensure their safety, and encourage him to seek treatment. To that end, JP had periodic periods of visitation with our children however we agreed JP’s visitation with our daughter (who is a subject to this action) would be restricted to solely daytime periods of visitation.”
True Sunlight Podcast has documented a long and troubling pattern of Myrtle Beach Police and Horry County Police siding with JP Miller and failing to help Mica in the months leading up to his death.
Wayne Miller also has a history of sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s. According to the Sun News, in 1987 the wives of 2 bible college students accused Wayne Miller of making “sexual advances on their husbands.” In 1989, WPDE broadcast a 5-part series “on Wayne Miller with blurred faces and disguised voices recounting inappropriate advances Miller allegedly made on students at his bible college.”
The series inevitably cast a cloud over Gloryland — Wayne’s former church — that Miller could not shake. His wife Susan Miller later claimed the series forced them to sell their home in Florence and move to Myrtle Beach, where he started a new church where his son’s church, Solid Rock Ministries, stands today, but was recently sold to developers for $2 million.
You can read the entire 2025 filing here.
Mandy Matney and Beth Braden contributed to this article.
To learn more about JP Miller’s wife Mica Francis, click here to listen to our “The Mica Francis Case” playlist and stay tuned to Thursday’s True Sunlight Podcast.
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