Pastor J.P. Miller's Worst Nightmare! "Hell NO, He's Not Gonna Stop" Attorney Regina Ward.

Well, if you've seen the number one docuseries right now on Netflix, Death of the Pastor's Wife, you cannot unhear or unsee Regina Ward, the no-nonsense, straight-talking divorce lawyer of the now-deceased Micah Miller, wife of Pastor John Paul Miller. Now, John Paul had been served divorce papers just two days before the death of his wife, also a restraining order. Micah was awaiting a second restraining order hearing, seeking to stop John Paul from allegedly harassing and stalking her. We say allegedly because we're in the biz, but with that, we welcome Regina Ward. Micah is gone, but Regina is still here, still fighting, still supporting her family. Thank you very much for being with me. Do you say allegedly at this? I mean, the evidence seems to be overwhelming that, yes, he stalked and, yes, he harassed and, yes, he abused. Well, I think we use the word allegedly whenever there may be potentially criminal charges associated with certain things. But for me personally at this point, because my interactions with Micah and everything that I've been exposed to that's not in the documentary, I don't feel like there's an allegedly for me anymore. I do need to correct something real quick, though, that you stated that we had a restraining order. We did not. That's one of the problems that we have in South Carolina that I'm really out here pounding the pavement about is the law needs to be improved significantly. And, you know, basically what happens in South Carolina is the definition of abuse is only physical, and it doesn't include this type of coercive control abuse behavior. And obviously, watching the documentary, I think everybody's getting a pretty clear picture, which I'm so excited about, as to how damaging and devastating that form of abuse is. And it certainly warrants an emergency restraining order. But our laws in the state of South Carolina only give those for imminent physical harm. So we were actually, you know, in a waiting pattern to get to a hearing date to actually request what we call an ordinary family court restraining order as a result of, you know, marital litigation. So that was hanging in the balance when she allegedly unalived herself. Do you believe she took her own life? She, you know, well documented. She bought the firearm and she made the drive to Lumber State National Park up north into North Carolina. But there are, you know, circumstances around her death that are very hard to explain. Most notably, that somehow in standing water, she ended up 100 yards away, face down, you know, away from her purse and phone. Yes. Well, for me personally, I just never could believe it. You know, as an attorney, of course, I see things like a coroner's report. But however, I think Robeson County sort of botched the investigation, in my humble opinion. They went into it, not knowing the history and the background or that she, you know, was involved in marital litigation at that time. I think that they would have approached it differently had they known that. So I have problems with that. But the biggest thing for me is I'd spent time with Micah getting ready for that court hearing that was scheduled in June. And she had already, you know, provided me with so much material, you know, a binder, basically, in fact, and many, many other things. And so we had been preparing for court and also in the, even in the very beginning of our interactions, my interactions with her, of course, you know, she presented as to me as, you know, a healthy, stable person. You know, as an attorney, that's something that we immediately are, you know, supposed to, you know, check on with our clients to make sure that we're talking with someone who's competent and capable. But the other thing is that she, you know, unlike some people who would come into my office, they'd be like, well, I'm kicking around the idea of doing this. And we're really sure they're, you know, they're looking for information to help them make that final decision. But Micah had left him so many times, and he reeled her back in so many times that at this point, she had finally gotten to a place where she was firm and solid in the decision to leave him. She had reunited with her family and some of her close friends. She was elated and happy. Of course, there's some situational type depression that I call it was really just sadness associated with an ending of the marriage, which, you know, is usually pretty typical and normal. But the biggest thing is she had dreams. She was already planning her future. She already envisioned it. She already had plans of what she was going to do. And someone that is, you know, that is happy and confident and obviously stable, in my opinion, and have plans for the future. And she had self-confidence and all of these things that it really takes to kind of go through a divorce period. But when you're dealing with someone like John Paul Miller, you just really have to get to that solid place because you've got to be able to, you know, already know that it's going to be the same tactics over and over and over again. But she was ready this time. And so I just don't believe it. And then on top of that, after all of that, you know, things just don't add up. There's a lot of things that don't add up. And so it's very difficult for me to believe that. You know, this guy, you have a dossier, I assume, of all the things that that he did. We learn a lot in the docuseries on Netflix. We learn a lot of the of the different tactics that he allegedly, you know, unleashed upon her on the back of her car and posted a naked photo of her. At one point, we learned that he commanded her to allow, was it like a couple or three homeless men to relieve themselves, you know, masturbate on her, which is beyond violent and disgusting. There's so much in there. What can you do with that? Now she's gone. But what can what's the best possible scenario for what could happen to this guy? Well, right now, there's, you know, he's been indicted on two federal counts, one of lying to the FBI, and the other one is cyber stalking his wife. And so those those things that we call allegations and actual stalking. Yes, I mean, okay, he sent her texts and emails and threats and all these things. But I mean, the dude did all the things I just mentioned right there. That is in person face to face stalking. Yeah, it is. And, you know, the allegation that he put, you know, razors in the tire that's listed as an as a fact as a fact that's referenced in the FBI or the indictment. And, you know, so they found information whenever they did the, you know, when they descended upon his house to do a search warrant and stuff. They found information, as I understand it, on his laptop that proved that he had ordered those, those specific contractions. He basically admitted, you know, to hiring a PI to place the trackers and things like that. But of course, for him, it was, oh, you know, I was concerned that my wife was going to harm herself, etc. And that he was just doing this, or, you know, to look out for her, which is all just absolutely bullcrap. It was all meant to track her so that he could continue to monitor her show up in places where he's not supposed to know where she is, you know, she was out having lunch with some lady friends and stuff. And of course, he has to do a damn drive by, you know, just so that she can, you know, he can let her know that he knows where she is and, and all of this, you know, just constant barrage of, you know, just never given her one single moments of peace. Of course, in my opinion, the indictment itself, it's not enough. It's simply not enough. But had this law was actually introduced back in 2020. And in the South Carolina General Assembly, specifically the Senate, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, at that time was Luke Rankin, he's Senator Luke Rankin, he's still the senator, and still the chair of that committee, but he never assigned it to a subcommittee to be worked on. I guess he just didn't find any, you know, he didn't think it was an important bill, but it got it got reintroduced multiple times, never got to a subcommittee, not one damn time until recently, after a little bit of this hit the fan. And of course, I stood up there and called him out for sitting on it and not doing something about it. So now, this last time he assigned it to a subcommittee, but of course, he waited to the damn last minute of the general session. So there's not enough time to work on it. So it died again in the subcommittee. So now it's got to be reintroduced again in January of next year, which is fine, because in my opinion, the way it was written to begin with, it should not pass. There's a lot more work that needs to be done to it. But it should have been put in a subcommittee. And that's what the subcommittee does. They have researchers, they look at, you know, or talk to other experts, or, you know, look to other things, and they work on it and craft it and get it in the in the proper format. But that just wasn't ever done. But, you know, South Carolina has proven over and over and over again that women, especially in, you know, domestic violence and abuse situations are just not on the top of the priority for that state. So I'm really hoping that after seeing this documentary, which, in my opinion, Crazy Legs Productions, Cinemark and Netflix, all of them together, they got it right. And that was something that was important. It was bold. It was bold. I mean, they specifically, you know, Micah Miller lost her life, the pastor's wife. Her family's devastated. JP is is unaccountable so far. He does have these this federal suit. But, you know, there's the whole family believes they remember her words. She said, if you find me with a bullet in my head, I can promise you JP did it. Yeah. Family feels like if he didn't directly do it, he enabled it or assisted it or accomplished it or something. Who knows where that ultimately ends up going? But the guy you describe, I see the he is maybe the most outrageous gaslighter. If you look up gaslight in the dictionary, everything was well, if she only took her meds, I tried to tell them I did everything I could to get them to take. And then, you know, he blames the family for withholding meds or convincing her she doesn't need them. Here's the question. Was she or was she actually bipolar? Did she need lithium and others such, you know, drugs that are that are really powerful? Yeah, well, I'll put it this way. In my opinion, which is not just my opinion, it's, you know, check this with with medical professionals, basically, is that in order to have a diagnosis of being bipolar, you have to see a psychiatrist. So I've asked for that over and over and over again. Of course, JP, he produces, you know, medical records that showed the old records, it says. But yeah, look at the other line where it says you were sitting in the damn corner spinning the narrative over there. But there that there's never been a psychiatrist name put for a brought forward. And I'm sure he would have relied on that if it was truthful. You want to say, well, Dr. So-and-so, you know, diagnosed emergency admission into a health care facility, a mental health hospital where they held her. And this guy is, you know, I guess he's got power of attorney as her husband. So he's sitting there making them do this. I mean, is there not a civil lawsuit in here where these people are accountable because they have to diagnose in some way? Well, here's how that works. And I and I have someone in my family that is that has been appropriately and professionally diagnosed with bipolar. So I'm very familiar with, you know, what that looks like. But I also know that, you know, I do some probate law to have a general practice. And so whenever someone is trying to or someone is a threat to themselves or to the community, then the person who witnesses that comes forward and says, hey, they're talking about unaligning themselves or they're, you know, talking about doing something else that's harmful in society. And so you have to go to, well, in Horry County, it's called the Waccamaw Mental Health Center. You go there and you fill out paperwork, you meet with somebody and you explain all this to them. And then they say, well, you're going to have to get them to a doctor to determine this. I'm like, well, I just came here. I thought this was the place to do it, you know. But but as far as that, it's it's like she already has a history. He played that over and over again. And what he claims is the where the diagnosis came from is where he talked her into altering her body and had a, you know, a surgical procedure for that. Whenever she had a reaction to the anesthesia that was associated with that. And this is a truthful thing. I mean, according to the all knowing, you know, AI and Google searches and stuff is that there is a temporary thing that can happen to someone. And it's rare, but it happens when they come out of anesthesia that they will have symptoms that are similar to bipolar, but they don't call it that. And I apologize. I can't remember the name of it at the moment. Bipolar is a permanent condition. The condition that results from that anesthesia is it's temporary. It can last anywhere from a few hours, a few days, a couple of weeks. And it says it can even last up to a year. And I just know 100 percent that if the doctor said, oh, it sounds like that, then he probably jumped on that train and rode it all the way and said, oh, you're bipolar. You're you know, the doctor said you were. Well, a plastic surgeon is not the one to make that diagnosis. It's not a real diagnosis. And I'm not even sure that that even happened. I haven't seen any records from that procedure that says it in there anywhere. All I see is the subsequent records where he took her to different places saying, oh, my wife's bipolar. She's acting. Why not a civil suit, though? I mean, there's too many people that allowed it to happen. I mean, we're watching this in the Lindsay Clancy trial right now where the psychiatric, you know, experts are. And even all the way up to McLean Hospital, there were so many people prescribing so many drugs. And yet, you know, there isn't on the DSM. There is there's still not protocol to address postpartum psychosis. Well, in this case, you know, she's being given some very, very heavy drugs for a condition she might not have. I mean, it sounds to me she does it. Her family believes absolutely not. She doesn't have it. Yeah. And I don't believe that she had it either. Like I said, you know, of course, I didn't spend day in and day out with her. Obviously, my relationship with her was a professional relationship. But Mike, I had this quality about her that she just went right straight into your heart. She had such a pureness and innocence about her that she's super likable. She was so loving and kind and giving and just really wanted, you know, she was a God-fearing woman. And that meant a lot to her. But as far as like, you know, other people didn't do things. Well, listen, this is a common tactic in coercive control abusers as they weaponize the legal system. You know, like you file a divorce and drop it. You know, he would do different things. You need to sign this document. He'd drag her to a lawyer, sign this, sign that. But also, the other thing is, while they're legally married in the state of South Carolina, you know, your spouse is the one that has the say over those things. So there wasn't, there was no need to, quote, having a power of an attorney, because technically your spouse is the one that, you know, most people look to. And as far as the medical providers, I do know that there was at some point, I think it was actually mentioned in the documentary, that the facility there that in Horry County, that they take in people who are, you know, supposed to be under observation for that type of thing. I think the second or third time when she got in there, they said, you know, we understand this has something to do with, you know, marital litigation or marital problems, and she shouldn't be here. So, you know, the whole system needs to be updated. You know, the definition of abuse needs to include coercive control types of behavior. Those need to be laid out. There needs to be education to law enforcement, first responders, you know, people in, you know, in those types of situations, judges, et cetera. Most people don't really get it. But I'm so, so thankful for this documentary. I just can't express it enough, because one of the things that I, when I had a meeting with them, I said, just please, there's two things that's got to happen here. Number one, this is about Micah, has nothing to do with JP. Well, hell, yeah, we got to talk about him, you know, of course. But the other thing is making sure that when people walk away from this documentary, that please, God, please, God, that they're able to feel like they can put their self in the shoes of the victim and understand firsthand how dangerous and how damaging coercive control abuse is. And especially from a pastor. I mean, think about that, who can weaponize the word of God and God wants you to serve your husband with all of you and do these depraved sexual things. He's a I mean, this guy lines up as as an incredible sex addict who and by the way, I think maybe a projector right of his own mental. He's the one that seems mentally unwell and literally like projecting everything onto her. That's true about him. Yeah, absolutely. That's another tactic that's used to but, you know, John Paul, you know, he recorded his sermons on if you know this or not, but after this happened to Micah, you know, well, you wouldn't know this, but in my office, I'm always referred to my staff as the wolf pack. And the reason that I called them that is because the acronym WLF stood for woman on law firm. And so of course, my staff was on the wolf pack, we'd have our little wolf pack meetings and stuff. So after Micah passed away, we created the wolf pack project and we went to damn work on looking up and digging into everything, digging into his father, his history, you know, his history of abuse is unbelievable. I've, I look, I've seen so much of it. I mean, the guy, you know, starts back with Jennifer Garland when she was 19 years old. And then it goes to, you know, his wife, Alison and what he, you know, did to her and all the different documented things he did, you know, to Micah. I mean, it's a long, long history. It apparently goes back to his father. It is. And this is the thing about that is that, oh, I was going to make the point that all of his sermons, he had said that whatever he's preaching about, you know, it's something going on in his life. And, and basically they were sermons directed to his wife. You know, if something happened and he wanted to get to her, then he would use the sermon, he would weaponize the sermon to go after her, which was, you know, another despicable thing, public humiliation. But let me, let me explain something to you. You know, I hear you and I appreciate what you're saying about, oh my gosh, all these things this guy did, you know, it's exhausting, right? Okay, well, all you saw was three 40 to 45 minute episodes. Could you imagine living your entire tender years of your 20, 20 something years of age? Um, every, every single day and night that on and on, never stop, never get a single, single moments of peace and always trying to outmaneuver him. And still somehow, some damn way to hold your head up, walk into church on Sunday and get on stage and sing like an angel straight from heaven. Um, it was just amazing. Her, her dedication to, you know, God and the teachings and stuff was another thing that really, um, to some degree kind of worked against her because she wanted to protect the church. Um, you know, she said that the church is not the man, the church is the people. And she was really concerned, um, you know, how this would impact the church. And, you know, a lot of people forget about those, um, church members. I know some people are out there going, oh my God, these people, they must, you know, they're drinking the Kool-Aid. No, y'all hold on one daggone minute here because Micah was in there. It was a, it was a wonderful environment within the church community. The members there were loving and caring. They were all on the same thing. The spirit of the Lord was in there. Um, you know, they didn't know they had a demon in the pulpit. Um, but what they did know is they had an angel on stage that was singing, who was very much involved in everything. And, um, you know, she was the one that brought that church back to life. He, he lost the church and the members, as he said, that they were hemorrhaging. I love God-fearing Southern people, especially because they're just, they love the Lord. And if loving the Lord is wrong, they don't want to be right. And they've got the pastor here and they're going to give the pastor the benefit of the doubt. But there had to be many times where, you know, cause he had his whole congregation under coercive control. Oh, and if you're not giving sex to your husband all the time, he's going to get it somewhere else. What kind of, what kind of pastor is saying that to his congregation? Yeah, obviously a deranged one, but listen, that, that sermon, okay. That sermon was meant for Micah. He was just talking to Micah. Oh, he's talking. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I know he's speaking right to her. That's what he's doing. But don't forget, many people did leave from those things. Okay. But what I'm trying to say is people are also forgetting that the members of that church were absolutely devastated too. Now I'm not, there's some in there that are still around. They're still hanging out. Those people are the ones we need to be worried about. But there were lots of other very good people in that church. And so I just, I don't want that to be lost either because that's something that was critically important to Micah. She didn't want people to lose their faith in God just because of his, you know, the things that he was doing to her specifically and the type of person that he was. And so, you know, I have concern and feelings for people who were part of that church. It was part of their life, you know. And so this man has created destruction in every corner of the earth. And so this is why I'm saying also too, that it's critically important that on course of control, abuse become criminalized because it leaves a path of destruction from beginning to end. And oh, by the way, what you were saying earlier, he's done it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Do you think he's ever going to stop? Hell no, he's not going to stop. He's just going to keep popping victim after victim after victim after victim. And that's how that works. And that's why it's critically important that, you know, that we get a law in place that slows that roll for some, gets the victims out of the situation. And in those really severe situations that it criminalizes it and puts their behinds in jail so they're not out here creating any more damage and destruction. Well, Netflix maybe has done probably more than anyone could. It's a highly influential company, but death of the pastor's wife is going to maybe be what gets the coercive control bill into actual subcommittee, get it working. And, you know, I think you're trying to rename it Micah's Law. That would be a nice, nice tribute to her. Yes, absolutely. And, you know, I talk about make sure you send letters. I don't care where you're from, send letters to the legislature, especially to the judiciary committee and the chairman. And if they want a template or a little go by, I have an email set up. It's called Micah's Law SC for South Carolina at gmail.com. They don't have to put anything in the subject line and nothing in the body. They send an email there, get an automatic response, give some instructions on what to do and how to do it and what to say. So what I would really, really, really, really love to see is not just a mail room full of purple envelopes or whatever, but I want to see a mail room that says Micah's mail room. And got it. That hat over that hat over Regina's shoulder says Hellcat. And it was given to her by another client. But I can already tell it's it's an appropriate gift. Thank you very much. In the best possible way. Regina, thank you very much. She is unmistakable and unforgettable in the Netflix number one docuseries Death of the Pastor's Wife. It's it's on right now. Give it a watch. You can't take your eyes off the thing.