CONWAY, S.C. (Court TV) — A South Carolina pastor is now facing two lawsuits accusing him of sexually assaulting underage girls.
John-Paul Miller was arrested on Nov. 6, 2024, on a charge of assault and battery. (Myrtle Beach Police Department)
Pastor John-Paul Miller was thrust into the public spotlight after his estranged wife, Mica Miller, died by suicide last spring. At the time, Mica’s family alleged that John-Paul had abused and drugged her before her death. No charges were ever filed in the case following an investigation.
Now, two women have come forward alleging that John-Paul sexually assaulted them years before while he was working as a teacher and a pastor at the church his father founded.
READ MORE | Pastor John-Paul Miller released from jail after arrest for assault
The newest lawsuit was filed by a woman who wants to remain anonymous, filing as Jane Doe, who says that John-Paul attacked her in 1999 while she was a student at Cathedral Hall Academy. The school, which was founded by John-Paul’s father, Reginald Wayne Miller, was connected to the family’s church and entirely run by the two men.
“Plaintiff walked into a nightmare. Cathedral Hall Academy was not a school, it was a trap,” Jane Doe wrote in her lawsuit. “What should have been a place of learning became a place of control, fear and unchecked abuse.”
The plaintiff said that she was left alone with John-Paul, who invited her to play the piano. When she turned to leave, John-Paul allegedly gave her a hug and moved his hands down her back “past her waist, and under her clothing and touching her bare butt.”
Another lawsuit, filed in February, alleges John-Paul of two assaults on the same victim. That woman, who has also chosen to remain anonymous, alleged that the pastor raped her on July 19, 1998. The plaintiff said she went to a church service with her grandparents, where John-Paul forced her out of the building and into his truck where he assaulted her.
RELATED | FBI raids home of Pastor John-Paul miller months after wife’s suicide
Nearly 20 years later, the same woman was in Myrtle Beach with a friend when she saw John-Paul. The lawsuit claims that he leaned in “as if to hug her and shoved his hand down her pants touching her genitals without her consent.” According to the lawsuit, the incident in 2023 triggered the repressed memory of the first assault in the victim’s mind.
The lawsuits are supported by an affidavit submitted to the court as part of a custody case by John-Paul’s ex-wife, Alison Williams. Williams, who was married to John-Paul for 16 years before their 2016 divorce, said that her ex-husband admitted to having an affair with the couple’s former nanny, Mica, and had also “employed prostitutes and been sexually inappropriate with several underage female members of our church.”
John-Paul has not been criminally charged for any allegations of sexual misconduct. He was arrested in November 2024 for a single charge of third-degree assault and battery after an alleged confrontation near his church.
If you need to talk to someone, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or text “HOME” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
