Myrtle Beach pastor John-Paul Miller accused of raping 15-year-old girl
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A woman claims Solid Rock pastor John-Paul Miller allegedly assaulted her when she was 15 years old, continuing a pattern of 'sexual abuse and predatory conduct' that often targeted minors over decades.
A 43-page complaint filed Tuesday in Horry County Circuit Court alleges that John-Paul touched her genitals without her consent as recently as 2023 and that the assault 'triggered repressed memories' of a previous assault by him that allegedly occurred nearly 20 years earlier when she was 15 years old and he was 19.
It doesn't mention whether the woman has provided information to any law enforcement officials concerning her allegations.
JP-Miller-lawsuitDownload
The lawsuit names the Millers, All Nations Cathedral Church, formerly Cathedral Baptist Church of the Grand Strand and Solid Rock Ministries. News13 has reached out to her Rock Hill-based attorney Randall Hood for comment.
'The Defendants — both individually and together — have built, maintained and concealed a system of sexual misconduct that harmed numerous minors, including Plaintiff Jane Doe #1,' the complaint says.
Timeline: The saga of John-Paul and Mica Miller
The woman now lives in Indiana as an adult, and the lawsuit says she is being identified as 'Jane Doe' to avoid the risk of 'humiliation and embarrassment.'
In 2023, the woman at the lawsuit's center encountered John-Paul in person during a trip to Myrtle Beach with a friend. That's when he leaned in to hug her 'and shoved his hand down her pants touching her genitals without consent,' according to the complaint.
A short time later, the woman and Miller got into a heated argument over use of his title as 'pastor' and citing scripture to justify the assault.
'In response, JPM cited scripture, telling Plaintiff: 'No man is without sin and temptation. God understands that.''
The woman's lawsuit also raises questions about financial dealings of the ministries and their leaders.
John-Paul Miller has repeatedly refused to speak with News13, which also reached out to him Tuesday for this story. Attorney Russell Long, who has represented Miller in other legal matters, declined comment when contacted by News13 on Tuesday.
News13 also contacted Reginald Miller on Tuesday, who in a text referred a reporter to Long.
John-Paul Miller has been embroiled in controversy since his wife Mica's death last April, while he was pastor at Solid Rock Church in The Market Common. Mica's death at the Lumber River State Park near Lumberton in Robeson County was ruled a suicide, but her family and numerous protestors within the 'Justice for Mica' movement have pushed forward with claims that he abused his wife.
John-Paul was jailed on an assault charge in November after an incident near the Solid Rock Church, which has since been closed and sold. Prior to that, the FBI searched his home in the Azalea Lakes neighborhood near Myrtle Beach.
He also has sued a former paralegal, accusing her of libel and slander on social media, and multiple protesters, though court records show that some of those cases were dismissed.
Jane Doe's lawsuit claims the Millers' churches 'operated without adequate protections for minors' and created 'an environment where abuse could thrive.'
'It was part of a calculated plan to groom victims while simultaneously gaining the community's trust and financial support,' the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit also alleges that the Millers failed to put in place policies to protect minors from abuse by adult church members.
'Despite the inherent risks associated with minors in a church, youth programs and church-based mentorship, Defendants failed to implement common-sense safeguards, such as prohibiting one-on-one unsupervised interactions between adults and minors, requiring background checks for all staff and volunteers, and establishing mandatory reporting protocols for suspected abuse,' the lawsuit claims.
The Millers' ministry dates back to the early 1970s, when Reginald Miller founded the Florence Tabernacle Church, the lawsuit said. The ministry eventually grew into the Gloryland Bible College and later Cathedral Bible College.
The ministry was relocated to Myrtle Beach in 1993 following allegations of sexual misconduct involving Reginald Miller and students of the college, the lawsuit said. That was followed by the creation of Cathedral Baptist Church.
'Over time, in an effort to further distance himself from prior controversies and to maintain operational continuity under a new identity, Cathedral changed names and identities to 'All Nations Church' while remaining under the same centralized control of RWM and his innercircle,' the lawsuit says.
Then, in 2013, the operations of All Nations Church were transferred to John-Paul Miller's newly created Solid Rock Ministries, the lawsuit said.
The Millers acted as 'alter egos' of all the ministries — 'effectively consolidating them into a single, unified entity that is indistinguishable from one another,' according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also contains past court filings from John-Paul Miller's former wife, Alison, and Reginald Miller's ex-wife, Susan, to support past claims of emotional, physical and 'inappropriate sexual behavior with minors' involving Reginald and John-Paul.
Both women detailed those accounts as they sought sole custody of their children — Alison in May 2024 and Susan in June 2001.
'J.P. told me that in addition to his affair with Mica, he had employed prostitutes, and been sexually inappropriate with several underage female members of our church,' Williams said in her affidavit. 'He blamed his immoral sexual behaviors on the sexual abuse he experienced for years by his father, [Reginald] Wayne Miller.'
Williams said Solid Rock leaders asked John-Paul to enroll in an 'extensive sexual education program,' but he opted not to do so.
The woman is seeking unspecified final damages on grounds of negligence, civil conspiracy, assault and battery, infliction of emotional distress and violating the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act.
* * *
Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.
* * *
Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Unions Demand Release Of David Huerta, SEIU Leader Arrested In LA ICE Raids
The arrest of a California union leader in the Los Angeles immigration protests has sparked anger across the labor movement, with unions denouncing the Trump administration and calling for the immediate release of David Huerta. Huerta, the president of a Service Employees International Union affiliate, was injured Friday in what his union said was a workplace raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The union said Huerta was peacefully 'exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity' at the time. He was released from the hospital the same day and detained. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli alleged on X that Huerta had been 'interfering with federal officers' by blocking their vehicle and said he would be arraigned in court Monday. The U.S. attorney's office in LA said Monday that Huerta had been charged with 'conspiracy to impede an officer,' which can carry up to six years in prison. Huerta is the head of SEIU-United Service Workers West, a powerful California-based union of 50,000 workers, many of them Latino immigrants who work as janitors. He is also the president of SEIU California, an influential group that advocates politically for the union's chapters in the state. As a union of service workers, SEIU is among the most outspoken in defending immigrant rights at a time when President Donald Trump promises to ramp up deportations of undocumented workers. Huerta said in a statement through SEIU California that 'hard-working people' were being 'treated like criminals.' His arrest reinforces the leading role labor groups could end up playing in combating the White House's immigration crackdown during Trump's second term. The AFL-CIO labor federation planned protests Monday at cities across the country calling for Huerta's release. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, which includes 63 unions, told HuffPost at a rally in Washington, D.C., that unions needed to stand together and defend workers against deportation. 'I think our mission now is basically to show that these raids on workplaces and attacks on families at the community level… [these] are our neighbors, our co-workers,' she said. 'These are people who are looking for a better life and are contributing to our economy.' Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest unions in the country, told HuffPost that Huerta's release was 'unacceptable.' 'This is about the right to make your feelings heard in a peaceful way,' Saunders said. 'That's exactly what he was doing. Yet he was beaten up and he was taken to the hospital, and he's still in jail.' He added, 'We cannot put up with this. We cannot sit back, and we can't be silent.' The anti-ICE protests sprouted up in Los Angeles on Friday after immigration officials raided an apparel manufacturer downtown. Hundreds of protesters later converged on a federal building in the city and clashed with Department of Homeland Security officers who fired pepper spray. The LA police department said it made more than 50 arrests over the weekend. Trump deployed hundreds of National Guard members to the city, drawing a rebuke from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor said Sunday that the state was filing a lawsuit against the administration on the grounds it had illegally federalized the California National Guard just to escalate tension. It appears to be the first time in 60 years that a president mobilized a state's National Guard without a governor asking. Jaime Contreras, the president of SEIU's Latino Caucus, said in a speech at Monday's rally in D.C. that he found Trump's deployment of the National Guard appalling. 'Being a veteran myself, I find that disgusting, disturbing, insulting and unconstitutional,' Contreras said.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
University of Michigan denounced for using private investigators to surveil student protesters
Pro-Palestinian protest on the UM campus on February 20, 2025 | Photo by Erick Diaz Veliz Josiah Walker has one year left until he graduates from the University of Michigan. However, since last summer, his college life had undergone an abrupt change when he realized he was being followed and recorded by several people while going about his daily activities on campus and around Ann Arbor. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one. According to The Guardian, they all shared the same pattern: the pro-Palestinian movement on campus. On Friday, The Guardian published a report in which a group of students accused the University of Michigan of hiring private undercover investigators from the Detroit-based firm City Shield to conduct covert surveillance both on and off campus of student pro-Palestinian activist groups. Walker is among the five U of M students who were interviewed in the report. They declared that they were trailed, eavesdropped on, recorded, and verbally harassed by what they considered intimidation tactics from the university. They said they recognized dozens of investigators, often working in teams, who were behind their steps around campus and Ann Arbor, sometimes sitting at nearby tables at cafes and bars. 'The same people and vehicles kept popping up everywhere I went on and even off campus. Each individual would execute some combination of recording and following me,' Walker told the Advance. The Guardian investigation determined that the private investigators are employees of City Shield. According to university spending records from June 16, 2023, through September 15, 2024, the university paid at least $850,000 to City Shield's parent company, Ameri-Shield. 'The university had used a lot of its own resources to uplift my previous involvements and accomplishments. Now, I'm on the other side where the university is using those same resources to try to destroy my future and, quite frankly, seriously injure or kill me,' Walker told the Advance. These students started to record, identify, and confront the undercover investigators by themselves, resulting in tense interactions recorded on video. Katarina Keating, also one of the students interviewed by The Guardian, is a PhD candidate and a member of the Graduate Employees' Organization. She recounted to the Advance that she noticed she was being followed in early November last year. She said she started seeing the same person following her after protests or events, and even weekly in the last months. Walker said he began to feel watched last year when he noticed that many people were continuously recording and following him; therefore, he started to record them in return. He shared the videos of those encounters with the Advance, also posted in the report, of himself recognizing and confronting those The Guardian reported are undercover investigators, including an interaction in which the alleged investigator, who is white, appears to falsely accuse Walker, who is Black, of trying to steal his wallet. During another of those interactions, he says a car from where he was being recorded almost hit him, making him fear for his life since then. 'The threat has already presented itself. This is what City Shield employees or university contractors were willing to do on camera when it was very obvious that I was recording them as I was holding my phone at chest level. There's no telling what they're willing to do off-camera,' Walker said to the Advance. Another video Walker shared with the Advance shows the same man sitting inside his parked vehicle and initially pretending to be hearing impaired, including speaking in an impeded manner, before switching to a normal voice. Michigan Advance requested an interview with a university spokesperson, but instead were directed to a public email from the interim university President, Domenico Grasso, regarding the investigation. 'At the University of Michigan, simultaneously keeping our campus safe and welcoming is a top priority,' Grasso said. 'We recently learned that an employee of one of our security contractors has acted in ways that go against our values and directives. What happened was disturbing, unacceptable, and unethical, and we will not tolerate it.' Additionally, Grasso said the university was terminating all contracts with vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus. The university also provided a campus security statement issued Sunday, saying that 'recent media reports have mischaracterized the role of contract security personnel who were engaged solely to support campus safety efforts,' and denying that the university had requested the services of private investigators to monitor U of M students on or off campus. Both statements explained that as part of a 'security strategy' during 2024, the university augmented contracts with outside firms of plainclothes security personnel in order to 'provide discreet awareness of potential illegal activities without escalating tensions,' said the updated statement. Grasso recommended reporting any inappropriate behavior by contractors or employees to campus police or the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Office. 'It's certainly not 'safe and welcoming' for the dozens of students and community members who have been banned from campus for participating in protests. Grasso should reverse these campus bans next,' said Keating to the Advance in response to the statements. Walker declared to the Advance that, as of the time of publication of this report, U of M has not reached him to offer support or in response to the investigation by The Guardian, and so far, he believes he is still being monitored. 'It's really unfortunate. There's no doubt that if City Shield operatives or university police see me, they're going to continue to monitor me. They'll probably just try to be more discreet about it,' said Walker. The student accusations come as part of a series of rifts in the already strained relationship between the university administration and pro-Palestinian groups, including accusations of vandalism against individuals in the groups, and alleged selective targeting by authorities. Walker was among a group of students charged in September 2024 with trespassing and/or resisting university police during the raid on the pro-Palestinian encampment at the Ann Arbor campus' Diag in May 2024. The trespassing charges were later dismissed. In April, the pro-Palestinian activist group, TAHRIR coalition, alleged that some of their members were targeted in raids by the FBI at the houses where they live, authorized by Attorney General Dana Nessel. The raids were carried out in Ypsilanti, Canton, and Ann Arbor by unmarked vehicles accompanied by the Michigan State Police and local police officers. Pro-Palestinian activists were also accused by the university police earlier this month of damaging and vandalizing hundreds of flowers at the university's famed peony gardens after they found papers signed with pro-Palestinian slogans. 'The university has 100% selectively prioritized rights such as freedom of expression and movement. If a cause has even a remotely favorable view of Palestine or Palestinians, one can expect fierce university opposition,' Walker told the Advance. Despite the actions of the university and its contractors being publicized, Walker doesn't feel completely at ease because he worries the university could still take various measures against him. 'On one hand, it feels liberating to be able to raise awareness about what's been happening,' Walker told the Advance. 'On the other hand, I can't help but know that the university police department and City Shield are probably looking for ways to retaliate against me.' Both Walker and Keating say college life is no longer the same and that they no longer socialize freely, to the point that Walker warns his close friends to be careful around him so they don't endanger themselves, while Keating is always watching people around her. 'My life has changed in that I'm on high alert any time I am walking around campus, which is essentially every workday. I'm always looking around to see if someone is watching or following me,' Keating said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tennessee prison riot contained after several hours; 3 inmates and 1 guard injured
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Inmates at a Tennessee prison sought to destroy property, compromised security cameras and set a few fires during a riot that took several hours to contain and caused minor injuries to three inmates and one guard, the facility's private operator said. On Sunday evening, a large group of inmates at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center from several housing units left their cells and accessed an inner yard, becoming 'disruptive and confrontational' and refusing to follow the staff's directions, according to CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin. The prison in Hartsville, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Nashville, is the subject of an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigation. One correctional officer was assaulted and released from the hospital. Three inmates were being treated for minor injuries, Gustin said. The prison's staff used chemical agents on the inmates, who were secured by early Monday morning. They did not reach the perimeter and state troopers and local law enforcement officers were positioned outside the facility. The Tennessee Highway Patrol deployed about 75 troopers and the agency remained on site overnight until 'every prisoner had been accounted for,' Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security spokesperson Jason Pack said. The prison remained on lockdown while CoreCivic and the Tennessee Department of Correction investigate the riot, Gustin said. The incident followed an assault by two Trousdale inmates Saturday that injured a correctional officer who remains at the hospital, Gustin said. Last August, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into the Trousdale prison after years of 'reports of physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,' according to then-U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis. The department confirmed Monday the investigation remains ongoing. Tennessee's corrections agency has fined CoreCivic $37.7 million across four prisons since 2016, including for understaffing violations. Records obtained by The Associated Press also show the company has spent more than $4.4 million to settle about 80 lawsuits and out-of-court complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at four Tennessee prisons and two jails since 2016. The state comptroller released scathing audits in 2017, 2020 and 2023. The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company has defended itself by pointing to industry-wide problems with hiring and keeping workers. CoreCivic has said it offers hiring incentives and strategically backfills with workers from other facilities nationally. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee's administration has stood by CoreCivic. However, the Republican-led Legislature this year showed its concern by unanimously passing a bill that would move 10% of inmates out of a private prison each time the annual death rate is twice as high as a comparable state-run facility. Lee signed the legislation. Department of Correction spokesperson Sarah Gallagher said the agency is developing a procedure to calculate and report the death rate for 2025 under the new law. The legislation was spurred by the advocacy of Tim Leeper, a roofing businessman who has attended the same local Rotary Club as the two Republicans who ultimately sponsored the bill, Rep. Clark Boyd and Sen. Mark Pody. Leeper's son Kylan was an inmate at Trousdale when he died of a fentanyl overdose. His family has sued CoreCivic over his death.
