Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #82 - JP Miller Tried To Blame Mica’s Death On A Cop, New Emails Show + Wayne Miller’s Previously Unknown Connection to Mica’s Divorce Lawyer

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Investigative journalists — and proud “podcasters” — Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell reveal the latest in the Mica Francis story, starting with emails from JP Miller and his sidekick Tricia Ross that were sent to police days after Mica’s death, urging the police to investigate one of their own in connection to Mica’s death.  Yes, seriously. Turns out May 2 was a very bad day for JP Miller. Not only did he have to explain himself to his partners at the Myrtle Beach bar he had a stake in, he seemed to be on a war path as he pointed his finger at Heather Wilson, his alleged former ally at Horry County Police Department. JP — demonstrating once again that he thinks the police work directly for him — wanted the department to investigate Heather for Mica’s death because she is the mother of the man Mica was hanging out with on March 11 and the man who JP later called and berated.  Mandy and Liz share the first installment of the texts and emails that came back from reporter Beth Braden’s FOIA for communications between JP and the police. Also on the show, how did the waterfront home in Myrtle Beach that Wayne Miller tried to get the courts to force an octogenarian widow who was thought to have dementia to sell end up getting sold to attorney Regina Ward … the attorney who represented Mica in her pending divorce and later Mica’s family in their quest to hold JP and his church accountable? We have the scoop — including an interview between Beth and Regina.  Plus, the latest in the Nautilus trial, which had Cory Fleming back up on the stand this week in federal court... and ultimately the jury came back with a verdict in Nautilus' favor, declaring that Cory Fleming owes them $1.25 Million in compensatory damages plus $50.00 in punitive damages.  On Thursday, January 9th, (after publishing this episode) Judge Gergel found and ordered that Defendant Fleming committed a willful or knowing violation of SCUTPA and hereby trebles Plaintiff's damages, resulting in an award of $3,750,000.00 plus reasonable attorney’s fees. Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ Episode Resources Jury decides Cory Fleming is liable for role in Murdaugh insurance scheme, owes $1.25M “Trial begins for Fleming in insurance accusation civil case” - Live5, Jan 6, 2025 “‘In my mind, that was deception’: insurance expert testifies in Fleming case” - Live5, Jan 7, 2025 Alex Murdaugh’s $14.8 Million Nautilus Judgement - Jan 2, 2025 911 Calls after Mica Francis’ Death Timeline Exposing Dirty Southern Money Facebook Page 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. Premium Members also get access to ad-free listening, 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. What We're Buying... Eric Bland's New Book!!! - Mandy's Book in Paperback!! - Marcia Clark's New Book - Amanda Knox's New Book - Tamron Hall's New Book - Erin Lee Carr's Book Peloton - onepeloton.com Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.com. Here's a link to some of our favorite things: https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn And a special thank you to our other amazing 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! This episode was edited thanks to Ashlynn R. near 42:00 *** For current & accurate updates: bsky.app/profile/mandy-matney.com | bsky.app/profile/elizfarrell.com TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Years before the name Elick Murdoch was splashed across every major media outlet, I was a local South Carolina journalist and I had an instinct that something wasn't right in the Low Country. The powerful Murdoch dynasty dominated rural South Carolina for generations. Few dared to publicly utter a harsh word against them. From the newsroom to the courtroom to the kitchen table where we recorded the number one global hit, the Murdoch Murders podcast, I invite you to learn more about my book, Blood on Their Hands. Blood on Their Hands is a harrowing first-person narrative of battles against systemic subversions

of the truth, overcoming institutional sexism, corruption, and threats to my personal safety to expose a network of horrific crimes and give voice to victims. Click the link in the description to order today. Visit any retailers near you or visit lunasharkmedia.com slash book to learn the best way you can stay pesky and stay in the sunlight. and stay in the sunlight. I don't know if Horry County police could look much worse when it comes to their special treatment of J.P. Miller time and time again.

But after a recent FOIA shed light on the pastor's connections with police, I am convinced there is something much bigger going on here. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hello, hello, the team is back and boy have we been busy. On Wednesday, we got breaking news in the Bowen Turner case, so let's start there. The South Carolina Court of Appeals denied Bowen Turner's appeal and y'all. That is a win. Remember back in September when

Chloe Bess' team eloquently argued their appeal to change victims' rights for the better, and in the same session, Bowen's bumbling attorney argued that Bowen shouldn't be a sex offender, just because? be a sex offender, just because? Well after Bowen first violated the terms of his probation back in 2022 and 31 days after being handed that naughty boy's slap on the wrist from Judge Dennis, a judge revoked his probation and sent him to jail. As a part of the revocation, Bowen was then required to register as a sex offender. Immediately Bowen's team filed an appeal and their argument was that the judge who revoked his probation aired in five ways that you can hear all about in episode 66, but

they don't really matter now. The argument was basically good ol' boy Babble and had little chance of winning. However, this case has been so freaking screwed up this entire time, it has taught me to expect the unexpected in our broken justice system, especially when good ol' boy power is at play. So I am celebrating the start of the year with a win for our justice system. And I'm taking time to remind y'all that Bowen Turner is currently living in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Please show other women in South Carolina his photo so they can be warned. This man has been arrested for violating probation twice, and he could be very dangerous. Also survivor slash queen, Chloe Bess, is waiting for the court of Appeals to decide on her case, which in a nutshell, argues that at Bowen's switcheroo plea deal hearing, Judge Dennis would not allow Sarah Ford to present the merits of her motions before the

decision of sentencing was made, and that violated Chloe's constitutional rights. We are hoping that the South Carolina Court of Appeals is carefully considering Chloe's appeal and taking into consideration how much it could help victims of a broken system. But in the meantime, we are celebrating their decision to keep Bowen Turner a sex offender. Speaking of creeps, if you thought that we were entering 2025 Murdoch free, I am here

to disappoint you. And disappoint us, even though we knew this was coming. Here's Liz. So right before Christmas, we got to see what more than a year in federal prison has done to Alex's best friend and co-conspirator, Corey Fleming, a man we've previously described as, you take Alec Murdoch, then you put him on a treadmill, and then you feed him lots of vegetables.

And there you have Corey. We really thought Corey was going to use prison as a self-improvement journey because that's who he seems to be. And maybe he has. Maybe what we're seeing is a better Corey. He went into prison ready for triathlons, but now he's back to being a regular, puffy, good old boy from the 14th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina. And I am not body-shaming Corey. I'm merely pointing out that he and

Ellick have never looked more like brothers from another mother than they do right now. Corey was transferred from federal prison in Georgia to county jail in Charleston ahead of the Nautilus civil case in federal court, which started this week and is expected to end as early as Friday. On Monday, 10 people were chosen for the jury, and it's not clear whether that's 10 people for the jury or 6 people and 4 alternates. And Corey apparently took the stand right after opening statements. Now I'm saying apparently because we are sitting this one out. It seems like a lot of the media is sitting it out actually because so far we've only seen one reporter who has published

live coverage from the trial and that's Live Five's Melissa Rademacher. Before the trial started Monday, Judge Richard Gergel signed off on an order approving Elex Confession of Judgment in this case for $14.8 million. This man caused so much chaos trying to get out of this lawsuit, right down to suggesting that Nautilus take the money from the Satterfield family. Remember that when Elic was like, yeah, I stole it, but look how much money they've gotten because of my theft. They have plenty. Go take some of that. All of that, and then settles for $14.8 million. Oh, and remember how he was suddenly like, I lied about the dogs? Therefore putting the onus back on Nautilus so that he could be like, y'all didn't investigate this hard enough because the dogs

didn't actually trip Gloria down those stairs, which means you shouldn't have paid out the claim in the first place. Not that we needed any more evidence that Ellic is the lowdown dirtiest, but there you have it. Now, going into trial, it appeared that Corey's defense was going to be similar. That A, even though he knew they were going to keep, i.e. steal, some of the money, and reminder, Corey kept some and Ellic kept the majority of it, that he didn't know Elic was lying about the premise of the claim and therefore this isn't on him but on Nautilus. And B. Because he thought this was a legitimate claim, he

also thought that Elic was going to give some of the money to the Satterfield boys. Now this is an unimportant distinction, at least to those of us who are normal non-lawyer types, but I need to mention, technically Corey's clients were not the Satterfield boys. His client was the personal representative of Gloria Satterfield's estate. He was representing Gloria, their mother. And at first, you know, Tony was the PR, but Tony was apparently asking too many questions. So Ehrlich convinced him to sign away his position as PR to Chad Westendorf, an employee of Palmetto

State Bank who got around $30,000 for his signature. And that was $30,000 more than what Gloria Satterfield's estate, Corey's client, got. Anyway, my point is, according to Live 5, Corey testified that he thought, quote, absolutely with no doubt, Ellic's intentions were to take care of the boys because they were on their own. And I find that really rich coming from Corey since his very initial argument back in the day when he was fighting to keep his law license in Georgia

was the boys weren't my client, Chad was. And therefore I didn't steal anything from the boys and Chad signed off on that settlement That was literally the gist of his argument But apparently now that he's a felon and trying to get out of paying back the insurance company He's up on the stand like the boys were on their own. I'm shocked Simply shocked that Ellic lied so much Again, how is it that we knew in 2019 that Ellic was a big fat liar and that his reputation was that of a big fat liar, but his best friend of 30 years was like, this was news to me?

Let's not forget that Ellic represented Corey's cousin, who was actually representing Corey's son in a lawsuit against Corey's wife who is also a lawyer back in 2012 when he claimed that Corey's wife was negligent for allowing their son to exit their SUV through the back hatch, you know, as kids sometimes do. In this case, their son fell out of the car and broke his arm. Ellic got the insurance company to pay out $120,000 for that arm, and Ellic got $48,000 for himself, allegedly. I'm not saying there was anything nefarious going on there, but it's certainly interesting. Also interesting is another case in which Ellic allegedly represented Corey's wife and sued Corey for an injury she allegedly received when Corey was allegedly docking their boat. There's no complaint that we can see filed in the public index, but we all know how Corey and Ellic are about when it comes to getting judges to allow them not to file things appropriately. So who knows what was actually going on there? Again, I'm

not saying that anything nefarious was happening, but when omelets are made with bad eggs, it's really hard not to wonder about that omelet, right? Speaking of, the biggest thing to come out of the Nautilus trial so far, or rather the biggest thing that Melissa Rademacher has reported on is this. Turns out the insurance adjuster that Ellic threatened was a woman. Now we've both been watching a lot of Sopranos lately so it's really hard for us not to hear Tony Soprano's voice in our heads when we're imagining this because this seems like a very Tony Soprano move. And for more on our obsession with the Sopranos, go to our

latest episode of Girl Talk on Lunashark Premium. Remember how everyone was like, how did Elec get his insurance policy to pay out such a high amount for Gloria's death? And then we all found out that Elec lost his temper on the adjuster and was like, I'll tell the jury I'm at fault for this and you'll be stuck paying whatever giant amount they decide to give Gloria, their neighbor. So on Tuesday, Nautilus's adjuster Amy Miller took the stand. According to Live 5, Miller testified that she and her colleagues thought that this claim was suspicious and they had doubts about the dog story, but she said she couldn't call Ellic, who was their customer, a liar.

She said, we have to investigate. Now that's where we take issue with Nautilus because it's like, come on. We saw parts of the investigation and it barely scratched the surface. And let's not forget that Gloria had health problems and had just been in a car crash the day before. If this were any of us, those things would have been thrown in our face. But Miller testified that multiple investigators

found no evidence that showed the dog story was a lie. In terms of other red flags, Miller said she thought it was odd that the Satterfield boys were not at the mediation hearing, which, yeah, red flag, right? According to Live Five, Miller got emotional on the stand, quote, describing Murdoch's behavior during the mediation,

saying he slammed his fists on the table and followed her out to the parking lot to tell her to come back inside and make a deal. See what I mean, Tony Soprano. If there's anything that gets our blood boiling over here, it's this, the image of a spoiled, physically huge, good old boy threatening a woman because she's not buying his lies.

So may Elec rot in prison for the rest of his life. As for Corey, according to Live 5, Miller was asked whether she thought Corey knew about the dog story being a lie. She said that Corey's testimony from either that day or the day before that he had heard parts of the story through the grapevine, actually contradicted an email of his in which he said he had heard parts of the story through the grapevine actually contradicted an email of his in which he said he had not officially heard

Ellic's version of what went down. In my mind, Miller said, that was deception. According to Live 5, when Corey was on the stand, he swore he did not know that the dog story was a lie and that he trusted Ellic. But Nautilus had receipts. They countered his testimony by showing him emails and checks that they said implied he was, quote, in on an insurance scheme. Corey's law firm is also a defendant in the case.

It's now called Moss Koon, which is interesting because John Moss, who was reportedly a mentor of Elex, had his law license placed on incapacity in active status last summer. It's also interesting because this is the very same law firm that pawned off their now former lawyer, Kim Smith, who worked for them onto taxpayers while she awaited the very obvious outcome to her own disciplinary action.

Old Kim, who was accused of some pretty epic lies and whose disbarment report from the Supreme Court might rank out there with the longest run ever written in South Carolina history, went to work for solicitor Duffy Stone. And we still to this day don't know the potential damage she did while prosecuting cases there. She also sat next to Mandy and me at Corey's federal sentencing last year so that was super awkward. Anyway that was all to say that Moss Kuhn was on trial too and their defense was basically this has nothing to do with us and we're not responsible for Corey.

Seriously, this has to be the most dysfunctional case to come out of the Murdoch mess so far because it's really a convention of corruption. Ellick and Corey profited off a corrupt system in which these insurance adjusters all know what a case in Hampton County means for them and more importantly, why. And they just seem to pay out the claims without, I don't know, maybe seeking out law enforcement intervention to get to the bottom of why the Hampton County juries are such a threat. And then there's Corey. Are we seriously supposed to be taking him at his word? Let's not forget this gem from Corey's letter to the Georgia Bar Association on February 10, 2022, more than a year before he pleaded guilty in federal and state courts and admitted

stealing money from the Satterfield family and knowing that this was the plan all along, that he and Elling would skim off the settlement. Quote, words will not do justice to the strength of Mr. Fleming's conviction that he did not conspire with Mr. Murdoch or Mr. Westendorf or anyone else to deprive Mr. Satterfield or Mr. Harriet of their lawful settlement funds. Until September 3, 2021, Mr. Fleming did not know of Mr. Murdoch's plan, conspiracy, actions, or any conduct seeking to deprive Mr. Satterfield or Mr. Harriet of their lawful settlement funds. So, uh, which quarry are we supposed to believe?

The one from the letter or the one on the stand at this trial? The one who had to ask the court for permission to wear civilian clothes because his regular outfit is a prison uniform? Well, good thing we don't have to think about it anymore. In case you couldn't tell we recorded everything you just heard early Wednesday and as is par for the course on Wednesdays after the episode was done the trial ended and the jury came back with a verdict. They deliberated for four hours and Corey was found to be liable for his actions. He now has to pay Nautilus 1.25 million dollars in damages which is more than 2.5 million dollars less than Nautilus wanted. The jury also awarded Nautilus just

50 dollars in punitive damages which is $49 more than Corey's attorney recommended he pay. I guess the jury figured prison was enough punishment for Corey? More annoyingly, the jury let Moss Kuhn, Corey's law firm, completely off the hook, meaning they did not find them liable for Corey's behavior as an employee. That's obviously not something we like to hear when we know many South Carolina lawyers who could benefit from more employer oversight, because God knows the bar and the ODC are not paying attention to things.

Anyway, the book has now been closed on the Nautilus suit and we can all go back to enjoying the new year. Okay, now it's Miller time, JP Miller time. In episode 80, we told y'all about the absurd number of police interactions JP Miller and Solid Rock members have had with the police recently. Specifically, Beth Braden counted more than 60 incidents where Myrtle Beach and Horry County police

were called for an incident related to JP or his church since Micah's death. And that isn't counting the five traffic tickets JP has racked up since Micah died in April, 2024. We highly recommend you give episode 80 a listen if you took a break from us this holiday, because it is baffling to hear the number of serious allegations that have been launched

against JP since last spring in the laughable effort or lack thereof. Both Horry County and Myrtle Beach Police have put in to determine if those allegations are true or false. And I'm not talking petty theft accusations here. I'm talking alleged assault here. I'm talking alleged bestiality. I'm talking alleged harassment. I am talking about things that they should be taking seriously if they want to continue to tell the public that they work to protect their safety.

Episode 80 left us with a lot of WTF questions. What is going on here? Why would a little loser pastor like JP carry any weight with local police departments? At what point will they put their foot down with JP and Solid Rock for swallowing an absurd amount of their resources while embarrassing their departments publicly? What gives JP Miller the audacity to treat police

like they are his personal security firm? What connections, really, does this man have within the police? To answer these questions, we did like we always do. We FOIA'd around and found out. By the way, we have new merch available for those FOIA fans out there. Check it out on the link in the description.

Specifically, we FOIA'd for police emails involving churchy business bro, JP Miller. And yeah, I'm pretty much done calling him a pastor. Those emails reconfirmed what we already knew, that JP is apparently connected to two specific officers at Horry County Police, Heather Wilson and Brian Wilson, who are married. But the emails also told us a whole lot

about what we didn't know. Like where the heck JP gets the audacity when he speaks to police like he's the Myrtle Beach Messiah. We learned about Heather Wilson's great awakening when it comes to JP and her church. And we learned about how fiercely and stupidly JP's closest allies continue to defend him. Most importantly, the emails filled in the blanks that we needed to paint a full and

complete picture here, that Horry County continued to give JP Miller the gentleman's treatment even after Micah's death, without any support from Heather Wilson. We are going to share these emails that we've gotten in several episodes because there are only so many jaw droppers we can include in an hour. So before we get into those emails, let's talk about Heather Wilson.

We first mentioned Captain Heather Wilson of Horry County Police in episode 52. Wilson has worked at Horry County Police for years while she was a member of Solid Rock at Market Common. She left the church sometime last year. Captain Heather Wilson is the police officer that JP tried calling several times in November 2022 when he was trying to prevent police from allowing Micah to get admitted to the hospital.

She's the person he was threatening the officers on scene with, according to the report. As in, you're in big trouble for not doing what I want you to do. Heather Wilson is also the mother of the man Micah was with on March 11th, the day that JP seems to think set course for Micah's fate. From what sources have told us, at some point during all of this, Heather Wilson realized that she was being played by JP, and she has cooperated with investigators ever since. Additionally, according to Micah's sister, Heather became a valued ally for Micah.

While we heard all that, we also heard from some sources who told us to look into her. Specifically, we heard that Micah's family launched a complaint against Wilson in 2022 after the November incident, and this was all confusing for us. Was Heather Wilson the reason why Horry County gave JP Gentleman's treatment time and time again or was she really an ally who changed sides once she saw the facts? And also, what is going on with her husband Brian? We are going to hyper-focus on the May 2nd, 2024 emails from the badge that we got last week to keep this episode simple.

More on that in a minute. I'm in my 30s now, and that's the fun age where we battle acne and wrinkles at the same time. Sometimes it's like a game of whack-a-mole and I usually lose. But all of that is changing for the better with Apostrophe. Apostrophe is an online platform that connects me with my expert dermatology team to get customized acne and dermatology treatment for my unique skin. I love that I'm able to

conference with my team on how to reduce dark spots and improve my skin texture. We have a special deal for our audience. Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com slash Mandy when you use our code Mandy. That's a savings of $15. This code is only available to our listeners. To get started, just go to apostrophe.com slash Mandy and click get started. Then use our code Mandy at sign up and you'll get your first visit for only $5. Thank you apostrophe for sponsoring this episode. At 9am on May 2nd, 2024, Gary Lin, the Detective Lieutenant at Horry County Police over the Homicide Special Victims and Property Crimes units emailed the Robeson County Sheriff's Office, the agency investigating Micah's death, to tell them he needs to speak with

him about a death investigation in their jurisdiction, which we know is Micah's. May 2nd is another one of those major dates in this story, where it appears like JP's entire world was erupting, and it also happened to be the day that Micah's body was cremated at JP's request. May 2nd was five days after Micah's death and four days after JP told his congregation at Solid Rock that his 30-year-old wife Micah died in a bizarre announcement that quickly took the internet by storm.

This is before Robeson County publicly declared Micah's death a suicide or publicly revealed any details of Micah's movements on the day of April 27. May 2 is the day that Sierra Francis, Micah's sister, filed her bombshell probate documents. Accusing JP of abuse throughout his marriage to Micah, the file outlined a trail of breadcrumbs for reporters like us to follow that would reveal shocking police reports, 911 calls, and medical records that painted a picture of JP Miller that he did not want the world to see.

So what was this email about exactly? The only thing for sure that it tells us is that an official at Horry County had information to give Robeson County about Micah's death investigation on May 2nd. And that's merely interesting considering the chain of events that also occurred in JP's life on May 2nd.

On the afternoon of May 2nd, JP was apparently panicking as the spotlight on him and his businesses was shining much brighter and harsher than he had ever imagined. May 2nd is the day of that infamous Crocodile Rocks meeting that YouTuber Robbie Harvey somehow got a hold of the tape. In the tape, which we cover in great detail in episode 76, JP oddly over explained the events that he said led to Micah's death during a meeting with his business partners that took place at 1pm in the afternoon.

The recording revealed that JP clearly knew more about Micah's death than the police had revealed at the time, and it showed how frequently JP lied about important details of Micah's mental health. And it also just showed us true colors. It was the only time that we have seen JP saying that he was sorry for Micah's death, but he wasn't sorry for what happened to her. He was sorry for what her death was doing. That her death was bringing negative publicity to Crocodile Rocks.

And by the way, isn't it a little strange that a pastor was a part owner of a bar where there's likely a large amount of cash flowing through it? Huh. So, after that meeting, it appears that JP was still panicking, and apparently enlisted Trisha Ross, his churchy business wingwoman, who happens to also be a convicted criminal, to email Heather Wilson's boss at Horry County Police. At 6.30 p.m. on May 2nd, Trisha emailed Captain Strickland.

And guys, I cannot paraphrase this due to the level of absurdity and the audacity that I just can't convey. So I need David to read this and I'm going to split it into two parts so we can digest the madness appropriately. Here is David reading part one of Trisha Ross's May 2nd email. Captain Strickland, respectfully sir, we would kindly ask you to look into some things for us. As you are aware, there is a lot going on due to the unexpected death of our pastor's

wife, Micah Miller. We are very concerned about the connections Heather Wilson has directly with the case and the fact that she is sharing things through texting that pertain to her suspicions that our pastor, quote, pushed her to suicide, end quote. This is unethical as a police officer to show bias with something that is not in the court system yet. In addition, the pastor's private investigator was able to find Heather's son kissing and touching the pastor's wife. We have admissions as well to that contact.

Heather has since threatened Pastor not to use her son's name. She has sent text messages to Pastor stating all his faults and a manipulated prayer with it. We do love Heather, but it's very concerning that as a police officer she is sharing with others her suspicions along with pictures, slashed tires, which have never been liked to the pastor. Of course, people that see Heather sharing things as a police officer takes that for truth. My dad was a police officer, and I'm pretty sure her actions are not ethical.

We are attaching photocopies of those mentioned correspondence. Again, we have to break this down because it is wild. First of all, notice how Trisha says this isn't in the court system yet? What were her and JP anticipating to be in the court system exactly? Micah died in North Carolina, so why would any of this concern Horry County? Next, we have the text that Trisha is talking about and we are going to share them, slightly redacted, with premium members and on another episode, because it is entirely too much. In a nutshell, some time before Micah's death, Trisha texted Heather a three page text,

all in one paragraph berating Heather for believing her son, her son who was accused of kissing slash having an affair with Micah, which we've discussed in a previous episode, over JP and turning her back on the church. Trisha wrote, quote, "'I don't think you would want anyone in your marriage

"'nor your sons if he was marriage. I think she met married. She said, God hates troublemakers. And she said, that's what I feel this is. Talking about God's anointed is a sin. End quote. God hates troublemakers. You hear?

And to be clear, to show this woman's level of delusion, Trisha is referring to JP when she says God's anointed. And she said that it was a sin to speak about his marital affairs. Which if that were true, I have apparently tallied up hundreds of sins in the last 8 months covering JP. Anyway, what's important is how Heather responded to this rant from Trisha. In one text, she said Titus 310, which says, quote, warn a divisive person once and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful. They are self-condemned." End quote. So Heather is basically saying,

I am done with you people. And then Tricia texts it back, I'm not going to argue biblically, that's not me, which is funny. And then she continued to berate Heather. What's more important here is that Heather's responses demonstrated a level of integrity I rarely see in police officers. She was kind, she was direct, and steadfast, saying that she was sorry that Trisha was hurting, that she was happy to talk to her in person, but that she was done with JP.

And this was back in March, by the way. She said quote, I know in your heart you are doing what is best in trying to protect the church. When there are problems, it hurts everyone. But the problem isn't and hasn't been dealt with. So this is going to continue to happen with others long after we are gone, unless y'all get some help." When I read that, I was like, go Heather.

The two exchanged long texts for the next few months going back and forth about JP and what is really Christian, which it is fascinating to read Trisha's mindset in defending someone like JP in the name of God. Again, go read those on premium. But on April 30th, three days after Micah's death, Trisha texted Heather and Heather's son that she was getting death threats. And Heather was like, okay, file a police report.

And then Heather went on to call out the hypocrisy of Solid Rock in an epic text that made me 100% Team Heather. I'll have David read this one. others they claimed to love, and continued to support and protect the one thing doing the hurting. Things like this and so much more sent her over the edge. Not people trying to love and help her, not her family, not her mental issues. It was being harassed, followed, set up, lied on, tormented by words, feeling like there was no way out. Here is a little for you to know.

If after knowing what you know and continuing to defend his evil actions, then that tells me you aren't the woman of God I thought you were." Whoa! I thought you were. Whoa. Heather went on to attach a picture of JP just casually dining that week with another woman. As if his 30 year old wife wasn't just found dead in a swamp. She ended the text with this. Quote. There is accountability and justice. These things are important and without them is why people are hurt.

Much like what happened to Micah. He drove her off the edge. No one else. So these are the things that Trisha sent the police as if they were supposed to do something about it. Seems like a personal problem, right? What does this have to do with Horry County Police and why would Trisha ever think that the police would do something about it. Seems like a personal problem, right? What does this have to do with Horry County Police and why would Trisha ever think that the police would have a problem with an officer leaving her church because she found the pastor to be a hypocrite?

Heather's agency was not investigating Micah's death, to be clear, aside from the initial information apparently shared by one officer that day on May 2nd. Why did Trisha feel the need to take this to police then, if she believed that Micah's case was absolutely an open and shut case of suicide? Also, Trisha capitalized pastor every single time, which made me giggle, along with her interpretation of police ethics

being based on her father being a cop. But wait, the letter gets better. Here is David with the rest of Trisha's email to police. We are concerned not only for our safety, but retaliation since she is a police officer. She mentions her suspicions of our pastor having something to do with the wife's death. There may also have been some sharing of a sexual registry of one of our members to get people to leave the church. Again, we just want everything to be fair and now they are saying Horry County Sheriff's Office is handling an

investigation and it could be a conflict with her so closely involved. The most recent texts to me have pictures of our pastor eating dinner. She sent this saying, quote, This was him with another woman this past week too, not to mention the others, end quote. She says I'm helping him, quote, Things like this and so much more sent her over the edge. Those are accusations that should not be coming from Heather being a police officer. It's very scary. She also sent a picture of our pastor and another woman to one of our members. Thank you, sir, for your time.

Solid Rock at Market Common. Now, to be clear, there is nothing remotely close to resembling a threat to retaliate in any of these text messages from Heather Wilson. If anything, Trisha in this email is proving the rumor to be true that Solid Rock and its members retaliate against members who leave or call out JP's hypocrisy. Trisha is literally tattle-letelling on Heather at work and saying that Heather is a troublemaker who isn't complying with JP's nonsense.

But the most absurd part of this email is the line that says quote, there may have been some sharing of a sexual registry of one of our members to get people to leave the church. What is she talking about there? Well, former Solid Rock elder Bernard Kenerson, who ended up resigning in early May, is on the sex offenders registry for a 1991 conviction of a sex crime

that happened in another state, according to Sled. So Trisha has the audacity to include a sentence in her letter, essentially saying, your police officer is sharing public information from the sex offenders registry about one of our members and it's causing us to lose business. You would think that the police would do what they did all of those times to Micah

when she went to them for help. You would think that they would outright dismiss this claim because there is nothing in this email that remotely concerns Heather Wilson's job or the duties of local police. And that is where it gets crazier. JP enters the chat 40 minutes after Tricia sent that bananas email to Captain Strickland.

He emailed Strickland saying the following that I am going to have to have David read. Here's David. We would like a full investigation as to Heather Wilson's phone texts, messages, pictures, her son DJ's affair with my wife, and anything else that Heather has done during this time that could have pushed my wife to suicide. My wife text her son asking him to not text her and he did anyway. It is my heart that Heather Wilson and her son are the main cause of all that has happened. We have witnesses of Heather Wilson in a restaurant openly

saying horrible things about my wife just a few days ago. We are working on a civil suit as well. Thank you, John Paul Miller. Guys, the tone of this man who clearly thinks of himself as the Holy One of Horry County, demanding an investigation into Heather Wilson in writing to the police where she works and JP said that he believes Heather and her son are the main cause of Micah's death. Wow! Think about this. At the very

least to us this shows that JP was feeling the pressure to blame Micah's death on someone else. And maybe he felt like telling people that Micah died from suicide just wasn't cutting it. It is interesting to us that he was the one thinking that someone else beside him should be blamed for Micah's suicide. Why would he point the finger at that point? And again, the audacity to not just blame someone, but to blame a cop and to ask for an investigation? And also, would love to ask how that civil suit is coming, JP.

Now, if your mouth isn't already on the floor from the audacity of JP Miller, buckle up because there is more." Horry County Police Deputy Chief Brandon Strickland replied to Trisha's email. And no, he didn't say GTFO like 99% of us out there would. He showed Trisha more respect and dignity than anyone ever showed Micah in the two years that she was trying to get help. Here is David reading Strickland's May 3rd email to Trisha, copying not one, but two other investigators.

Trisha, I attempted to call you today and yesterday, but did not receive an answer. I have copied Inspector Hemingway and Inspector Sissel of our Internal Affairs Division to take both your and JP's complaints for investigation. You will both need to provide contact information to them so they can reach you for follow-up. I'm sorry? Follow-up? I'm sorry? You will both need to provide contact information to them so they can reach you for follow up. I'm sorry? Follow up? I didn't know Horry County did that with women who launch complaints.

Because they didn't follow up when Micah's female family member accused JP of sexually abusing a dog. They didn't follow up when Micah reported a razor in her tire and when she reported JP stalking and harassing her a month before she died. They didn't follow up on a lot of loose ends, and frankly, they have enabled and bolstered JP at every turn. If anyone is to blame for this mess aside from JP and his supporters, Horry County and Myrtle Beach Police have blood on their hands. No matter which way you split this story, it is baffling to me that Regina Ward, Micah's attorney, never filed a lawsuit against police

before giving up the family's right to sue on Micah's behalf with so many solid examples like this one that clearly show something is going on here. And yes, devil's advocates out there, we know that police can lie to the public, and we know that there is a small possibility that Strickland is pretending to follow up to get more info out of JP.

But that just doesn't match up with the department's behavior toward JP since May. They have practically rolled out the red carpet for this man. What we don't know is how far this investigation went after this point. But don't worry, we are filing more FOIAs to find out. What we do have more proof of is Horry County Police favoring JP and treating him better than most people. We have more emails that show a questionable relationship between JP and the police which we will share in a later episode. But the question is why?

Why are they doing this for little old JP? All of this is leading us to believe that there is something bigger going on between police and JP Miller. Much bigger than his connection to the Wilsons. And I think we are getting closer. We'll be right back. Okay now we want to tell you a little bit about a strange connection between JP Miller's father Wayne Miller and Micah Francis' divorce attorney, Regina Ward, the woman who later

represented Micah's family in getting a settlement from J.P. Miller and Solid Rock Ministries, and who says she's going to push the South Carolina legislature into criminalizing coercive control with Micah's law. Researcher and journalist Beth Braden initially brought this connection to our attention more than a month ago, but we hadn't yet gotten around to digging into the context to understand what we were looking at. In other words, it was a piece of a puzzle that we didn't quite know what to do with yet. We now have more pieces and the picture that is forming is, well, very familiar to us.

It's almost Murdoch-esque, where there seem to be monsters around every corner, and everyone and everything seems to hold some odd connection. Recently, we became acquainted with a woman named Deena Hanna, who told us that it was our coverage of the Murdoch story, and specifically Maggie Murdoch's story, where so much remained behind closed doors, that led her to make her research public

on a Facebook page that her husband created and administers called, Exposing Dirty Southern Money, Justice for Joe and All Victims. Dana is from Florence, South Carolina, which is a short distance from Myrtle Beach. And since 2018, she and her husband, Craig, have been fighting on behalf of Craig's elderly mother, Jo Hannah, to expose corruption in the probate system and in certain legal

offices. Their work has since expanded to advocacy for vulnerable people who are victims of probate abuse. Their story is one that I'm sure we'll talk more about because some of it bears a lot of resemblance to Micah's case and potentially involves some of the same players. But more than that, it seems to be a case that could be described as the first big crack in the foundation of what appears to be widespread fraud. The Hannah story includes allegations of organized and systematic harassment against them, millions of dollars that appear to be missing, unscrupulous probate judges and estate attorneys,

allegations of transactions occurring outside of the law, and the 2023 suicide of one lawyer who appears to have been at the center of it all. We're just now wrapping our heads around the magnitude of Johanna's case and the very deep rabbit holes surrounding it. This is all just to say that Dana became interested in the Murdoch case because of the financial crimes and specifically the probate aspect of how Ella carried out those crimes. And she became interested in Micah's case when certain aspects of the harassment Micah faced seemed awfully familiar, including details of Micah's death.

She has since found even deeper connections between Joe's and Micah's cases that we'll talk about in the future. Okay, now back to Regina Ward and Pastor Wayne Miller. Independently, Dana had done a deep dive into the connection that Beth had told us about, which involves an elderly woman named Evelyn Califf, which is sometimes pronounced Caleb, who lived in a modest three bedroom house on the Intracoastal Waterway in Myrtle Beach, near Market Common, where Solid Rock Church was before it changed names and moved to a storage unit and now a sports mall. That's all a story for another day. Let's talk about Evelyn Califf. According to research from Dana and Exposing Dirty Southern Money, Evelyn was a friend of Wayne Miller and taught music at his Bible college. It's not clear when Evelyn started teaching at Cathedral Bible College, but a story in the Myrtle Beach Sun News from 2006 lists this among her

activities. In 2006, she also sang in Wayne Miller's second wedding. In newspaper coverage over the years, Evelyn was described as a social worker and psychotherapist. She helped bring Parents Anonymous, which is an organization that works to prevent child abuse, to South Carolina and Horry County. She and her husband Jim appear to have been very involved in serving the community. Jim worked for the Council on Aging and worked to create a senior center in Horry County. He was very involved in ARP and started the South Carolina Silver-Haired Legislature. Oddly, as Dana has pointed out to me, his name is still listed as the registered agent

for this group despite him dying just a few months after it started in 1999. According to Dana's extensive research into the Caleb-List backgrounds, they were also motel owners in Orea County until 1996 when they sold the business. When Jim died, he had nearly $800,000 in his estate according to his probate file. Alright, let's fast forward now to August 2022 when Regina Ward bought Evelyn's house in Myrtle Beach for $551,000.

Which means it's now time to talk about Wayne, JP's father. Let's do a quick walk down memory lane first. Wayne, as you know, was a big locally famous televangelist in South Carolina in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1972 he started Florence Tabernacle in Florence, South Carolina. By 1977 he was hosting a TV show called Good Morning Jesus and had created his Bible College. He was rapidly trying to expand his church including in Myrtle Beach and over the next few years he was working on creating something called Gloryland which sounds like it

was intended to be a low-level version of the Righteous Gemstones amusement park with a petting zoo and things like that. According to Wayne's divorce filings, his first divorce from JP's mother in 2002, Wayne traveled a lot and was really trying to be the man when it came to charismatic preaching. He was also in a lot of personal debt, apparently, because soon after JP's mother filed for divorce, Wayne filed for bankruptcy in federal court. Stick a pin in that one, okay?

Three more things to know about Wayne and then we'll go back to Evelyn. In the 1980s, he was accused of making unwanted sexual advances on male Bible college students, and a whole segment ran about it on the news. This caused the family to flee to Myrtle Beach, which is actually a funny thing to say out loud. In 2006, shortly after his second marriage, Wayne was caught soliciting sex from an undercover male police officer in a bathhouse. He pleaded guilty to that. Then in 2014, Wayne was federally indicted on four felony charges connected to allegations that he forced foreign students at his Bible college

to work for little and even no pay. He faced more than 40 years in prison for that and a million dollar fine, but in 2015 ended up getting time served, which was about four months. He was ordered to pay $75,000 in restitution, attend anger management classes, and was on house arrest for the first year after that,

and then supervised probation. The docket in this case is messy by the way. There were lots of delays, lots of claims of having no money for an attorney or to pay his fine, and in 2016 he tried to get the judge to terminate his probation. The judge did not do that. Okay, now back to Evelyn. So how did Evelyn's house end up being sold to Regina and what does this have to do with Wayne, right? Wayne's Church Cathedral Baptist Church of the Grand Strand, Inc. apparently loaned Evelyn a total of $48,200 in 2016 and 2017. This came Wayne's church wrote five checks to Evelyn. One for $15,000, then another for $1,200, just 11 days later.

Then two days after that, another $5,000. Then seven days later, another $12,000. And a month later, another $15,000. Weird, right? I don't know how your church works, but we've never heard of this. Also, I want to note that while Wayne included the check numbers and amounts of the payments in a confession of judgment that got filed later, he didn't include photocopies of these checks at any point in any of the court filings. At least not that we've seen. Particularly interesting is that Evelyn was born in 1934, which means she was in her 80s when she was being given this money by Wayne. And I'm going to refer

to the church as Wayne moving forward because he started it and was the chairman of the board. Also, I want to note that Evelyn reportedly had dementia around this time and was allegedly under a conservatorship. This could be true, but we haven't seen anything official that notes either of those things yet. Okay, so again, the whole thing is weird. That's an awful lot of money to be doling out over the course of seven weeks, especially when just months earlier Wayne was pleading poverty with the federal government and an

inability to pay his monthly fine to the court. And especially when it seems like a real theme for Wayne to claim that he is broke and the church is broke whenever the check comes to the table. Anyway, ten months after paying out the last of the money to Evelyn, Wayne, again the church, filed a confession of judgment from Evelyn in Marion County Court. Why Marion? Great question. Apparently a small property that Evelyn owned in Marion was used as collateral for these loans according to Wayne. The last paragraph of Evelyn's confession of judgment reads, I do not have an attorney, but I do fully understand the context of this judgment by

confession, and I do hereby verify that I owe this debt to the Cathedral Baptist Church of the Grand Strand, Inc., for loans given to me as described herein, and I do hereby bind myself, given to me as described herein, and I do hereby bind myself and my heirs and my assigns to this judgment by confession." Now, I don't know about you, but if I found out that my elderly mother who had dementia signed something like this without a lawyer and was taking out substantial loans from a church, I'd have some serious questions. Now, remember when I told you that shortly after Wayne's first wife, who says she didn't finish college because of him and didn't

hold a job during their marriage because he objected to that, filed for emergency relief from the court, i.e. tried to get alimony and child support, Wayne filed for bankruptcy. Almost two years after allegedly signing that confession of judgment, Evelyn filed for bankruptcy. She would have been about 85 years old at the time. Among her list of creditors is Cathedral Baptist Church of the Grand Strand, listed twice, once as itself and once with Wayne's name attached, but with the same mailing address.

Most of her other creditors are related to taxes and a more than $400,000 reverse mortgage that Evelyn had apparently taken out on her house in 2013. And yeah, I have a feeling we'll be talking about this reverse mortgage thing again in the future. For now, let's talk about how Wayne made this whole process messy and dramatic and all about him. In typical Wayne style, he wrote an email to the judge. In all of our courtroom coverage, we have never seen so much one-on-one communication with the judge, by the way, as we've seen with Wayne, who was going by Reggie for the purpose of these communications. You might remember that in his first divorce

filings, they were made under the name Rudgenall Miller, meaning Rudgenold, his actual first name, but without the D. And instead of going by Wayne here, he appears to be called in most cases, Reggie. So in September 2019, Reggie Wayne wrote a letter to the judge challenging the information given to the court by Evelyn's attorney and he tells the court that there's a confession of judgment at play which he attached. Here's David. We only applied this judgment to her property because of her continued failure to make good on her promises. She asked for loans to save her property and estates. It was our loans that saved her home at that time.

Reggie Wayne told the judge that in 2017, remember, that was the last of the five payments for $15,000. He'd already loaned her $33,200 over a short amount of time at that point. But Evelyn came to him again and had a document with her prepared by her son claiming a contract for sale on a piece of Marion County property. Reggie Wayne says the document indicated it would be sold for $50,000 in several weeks. Here is David again. She and her son promised to repay the full amount if we would loan them the last of our funds. $15,000 we loaned. We did not hear from Mrs. Califf for months. In the fall of 2017 she came to us and said again she was going to lose her home.

She said that she knew she had done wrong and would sell the home and buy a smaller place and pay us if we would help her. She said that she could not sell because of hurricane damage from the previous year. I helped her obtain the insurance funds and renovate the damage and also nearly $18,000 to help her again save her home and pay up all of her bills that were 90 days behind And get her car back on the road again in the spring of 2018 after everything was done she refused to honor her pledge to sell and repay.

Okay, so she didn't pay back the 48,200. There was no follow-up for this property sale that was purportedly happening, and he didn't hear from her. And she took the last of the church's funds, but then he gave her an additional $18,000? That isn't something that he is seeking to get back now? It's very confusing.

And also, red flag, red flag, red flag. Here's David again. Mrs. Califf, at her age, cannot maintain such a large home. The electric bill and utilities could make a payment on an apartment or a small home payment. This bankruptcy is another effort to cheat the church out of the funds she owes. He then tells the judge that Evelyn gave him false documentation regarding the Marion property, inflating its value. According to Reggie Wayne, Evelyn's son bought the property years earlier for $15,000 and sold it to a friend for $500,000.

Then one month later, had the friend sell it to Evelyn for somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000. That is his language, not ours. It seems that someone who knew the exact address of this property would know how the deed changed hands and for exactly how much. But sure, let's use his estimate. Reggie Wayne then claimed that when he visited the property he found that the house was in disrepair and had a collapsed roof and that the church had to hire someone to cut down all of the trees to

get to the house. Then he says he found out the property was up for tax sale on the courthouse steps so he paid $300 to save it. Here is David. Again, she promised to sell this property and give back some of the funds until she could sell her home. She did not do so. Please do not let these two pull this off and again steal from us these funds. The house could be sold easily for $500,000, which would pay us off and give her the money to purchase a nice apartment that would let her live within her means and have enough left over to buy her a new car. Then he included attachments that showed the value of the properties surrounding Evelyn on the Intracoastal and a note letting the

judge know that quote Mrs. Califf would probably sell at a fire sale for half a million and even more if given more time and without the threats of her son or anyone putting it up for sale. Huh, seems like he really wants that house, right? And then he attached a letter he wrote to the court in February 2018 when he filed the confession of judgment. In it, he claims that the contract of sale that Evelyn and her son presented to him for the Marion property appears as if quote, the same handwriting signed all sections of it, end quote, and he claims that they showed him a picture of a nice home but in reality it was an eyesore.

With what we now believe to be lies from her and her son, and with the trusting kindness of Dr. Stowe and Dr. Miller, two of our trustees, she with the aid of her son, managed to get them to loan every penny the ministry had in January of 2017 with the promise of repay in 30 days. She has a home with enough value that she could pay off the debt and have income for the rest of her life. Reggie Wayne said that because of Evelyn, the church lost a $250,000 insurance

policy that they had already paid $60,000 into, and that suffering she caused was unbearable. Then he dropped this one. She has instead supported her adult son financially. Since he has no job, she has to pay his phone bill, provided transportation, paid all the bills on the home where he lives free, and yet he can be seen on Facebook at bars having a party. So money is coming to him to party while no funds are available to repay the ministry. Then he asked the Marion County Court to force Evelyn to put her house up for sale. Meanwhile, in Horry County Court, Evelyn was being sued by reverse mortgage funding LLC for non-payment. Okay, so in bankruptcy court there was a hearing held for Evelyn's creditors in November 2019 and Wayne even though the

court noted that he knew about the meeting and he had just sent that letter to the court two months earlier did not show up for it. A week after missing his meeting, Wayne told the judge that he failed to understand that he needed to be there. Here is David with the rest of what he said. We do not have the funds for an attorney. Due to the failure of Dr. Califf to honor her agreement with us to sell the home

and move into a smaller place. We have lost our facilities and have had to move into another church that was kind enough to share with us their facilities. We have lost members and support. We have had no salary paid to anyone since 2017. We have been devastated by this situation." So, 85-year-old Evelyn is responsible for the church falling apart? Not Reggie Wayne's reputation.

Also, by, we had to move into another church kind enough to allow us. Does he mean JP's church? His son's church? Come on, Reggie Wayne. Be transparent. The email goes on to say that Reggie Wayne is 72 years old and living off of social security. And though he thought he had filled out

all the necessary forms in Colombia, he's being told there's nothing on record from him. The funniest thing here is that the subject of the email starts with the words potential spam. Okay, so the judge didn't acquiesce to Reggie Wayne's demands that he be treated equally to the creditors who actually showed up when they were supposed to and who filed the correct forms at the correct place. What's more, Evelyn's attorney pointed out

that Reggie Wayne isn't the creditor. The church's incorporated entity was. And as such, the church was required to obtain counsel and speak to the court through counsel, which the judge agreed with. In January, 2020, the court was set to confirm the plan for Evelyn's creditors, but Reggie Wayne had more to say about it because 1. He didn't like that the court and reverse

mortgage company were saying that Evelyn's Intracoastal Waterway home was valued between $350,000 and $400,000. 2. He didn't like that he, like the rest of the creditors, and like the creditors that he listed in 2001 when he filed for bankruptcy, possibly wouldn't be getting the full amount of the loans repaid. And three, he didn't like that the court was considering removing the judgment against Califf and allowing her to pay back her debts through payments.

And this time he went full JP Miller. The email to the judge read like one of JP's emails to Micah back her debts through payments. And this time he went full JP Miller. The email to the judge read like one of JP's emails to Micah in the early weeks of their marriage when he was trying to convince her that she was a very sick woman and that he was a very put-upon man. Reggie Wayne, who remember,

was ordered to take Ingram management classes, started by telling the court that they were actively trying to find a lawyer for the February 20th hearing. Here's David with an edited version of the rest. The plan filed, as far as we can see, is a sham. We were very disappointed in the court not finding the value of the home for what it is.

Not because we want the woman to lose her home, but because we know that as soon as the judgment against her is removed, the house will be sold for the real value. There is no dispute of the facts. Which is also why I was very disturbed with the attorney for Califf bringing to court a former legal situation that has nothing to do with the facts of this case. I assume that we will be able to put into evidence, with our objection, the criminal record of Mr. Califf, the son, and also the courthouse records that show that he has gone through her entire estate and there are literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of judgments, etc.,

against him at the Horry County Courthouse. Furthermore, there is the witnesses who have heard him threaten his mother, threaten to kill her if she attempted to pay back the money loaned, etc. I would have thought that only the facts of this case would have been the criteria for evidence. Oopsie. Did someone bring up Reggie Wayne's history of the loneliest fraud to the judge? Boy did that enrage him because he then laid out ten points for the court. One, he said it's a fact that the church loaned her this money. One, he said it's a fact that the church loaned her this money.

Two, he said it's a fact that months after the loans, he was told not to contact Dr. Califf, but still she contacted them and begged for help. He said this time they gave her help in the presence of a bank official. Three, while he was waiting for repayment, he said he quote, had to bring her food and groceries because she had nothing to eat and that he

was objecting to her having to make payments because her income was being taken away from her. How in the world can she pay anything off? He said. Four, he said it's a fact that this only has to do with quote, the removal and cheating of a church out of funds that were loaned interest-free to help a widow in need, for whom we can produce witnesses of the fear she lived in and the threats made against her by her son. Five, he said it's a fact that the church left her alone and was just waiting for her to die,

so they could get the money back from her estate. Quote, at her age, more than most people younger, she would be more likely to pass along before these payments were made. Six, he said the only acceptable plan would be for the balance of the loans to come from her estate after she dies or if, and this part is in all caps, the home were sold prior to her death. 7.

He says the property in Marion isn't even worth $15,000. He said he personally drove Evelyn to Marion for her to meet with a real estate agent and that the property was put on the market. But after many months when the realtor called to say she had a buyer for $10,000, Dr. Califf canceled the listing. Eight, he said, quote, After hearing her son on the phone, which she supposedly, and that's what he wrote, Mr. College Dean with a doctor in front of his name, supposedly, had concluded a call with me, but evidently had just laid it down. I heard her son screaming and

threatening to choke her to death if she ever made an attempt to pay the debt. He said this also occurred in the presence of a social services employee another time and that the police paid a visit, but Dr. Califf denied there were any problems. Reggie Wayne wrote, quote, What was she to say in front of her son? Nine, quote, I also received a warning that her son was seeking to find someone at a local bar who would kill me. Even Dr. Califf's former lawyer encouraged a church member to call Sled to report the situation. We did not do so.

We just left the matter alone. But we are very disappointed in the legal system, from our opinion, to come up with a plan that we think will leave us without any or very little of our funds returned. And 10. I hope to have an attorney by the February 20th hearing. So Reggie Wayne had already been warned by the court that he needed to speak to them through an attorney, but nevertheless, how did Regina Ward end up with this house that Reggie Wayne so desperately wanted the court to force Evelyn

to sell for at least half a million dollars? Which we will tell you about after a short break and we will be right back. Now for the conclusion. Well first, Regina Ward is apparently not just an attorney but also a licensed real estate agent for her company, A Ward Realty. Now we haven't found a website for that but she is listed as a realtor on a common real estate website. Second, Wayne, let's just call him Wayne again, didn't mention that in February 2018, the very same month he wrote a long letter to the Marion County Court asking them to force Evelyn to sell her home, it was somehow listed for sale for $525,000, which is about $175,000 more than Evelyn had listed its value in her bankruptcy files. Two months later, the price was reduced to

$475,000. Then the listing was removed altogether two weeks later. In June 2022, the house reappeared for sale for $475,000. And two days later, according to a Zillow report, a sale was pending at that price. Now that doesn't mean that the pending sale was for $475,000. In fact, it appears there was a bidding war over those two days that it was listed. Two months later, though, the house was closed on and sold to Regina Ward and a man named Gregory Hunt for $551,000. Significantly over the asking price and offering more than enough for old Wayne to get his $48,200 back in whole, right? Since purchasing the home, Regina appears to have put a lot, and I mean a lot of work

into it. It looks like a completely different home inside. And this past September, she briefly put it on the market for $885,000 through her realty agency for about two weeks, according to an online profile of the house. So if this were a story in the Daily Mail, the headline for it would be, Micah Miller's divorce attorney Regina Ward, who got a controversial settlement from Micah's alleged abuser and harasser, i.e. Micah's estranged husband, Pastor J.P. Miller, on behalf of Micah's family after Micah's mysterious death in a North Carolina swamp,

ending the family's ability to bring suit against anyone found responsible for Micah's death later on, bought a home from elderly woman in bankruptcy, the same home that JP Miller's father, Pastor Wayne Miller, urged two courts to sell out from under the elderly woman to repay strange loans his church gave to elderly woman over a course of seven weeks. Reporter Beth Braden spoke to Regina Ward on Wednesday about this house. Here's that interview. Well, things that we noticed was that he had sued a lady named Evelyn Califf. And we were looking up Miss Evelyn's information. It

looks like you ended up buying the house that Miss Califf sold. Yeah, isn't that crazy? I know, small world. But I wanted to, just for, you know, our reporting purposes and for being factual, I just wanted to call and ask if you knew about Micah's connection to Wayne at the time she hired you. Okay, if I knew about Wayne's connection with what when? With Micah when Micah hired you to represent her in the divorce. Was she daughter-in-law, right? Yes, yes. I'm sorry, I'm not following the question.

Yes. I'm sorry, I'm not following the question. Sorry, did you know that Micah was Wayne Miller's daughter-in-law when Micah came to you to hire you for her divorce from JP? Oh, no, not on the front end, of course. I mean, that's not something when people come in and want to get a divorce, they don't ask them what their in-law names are. And I didn't know, you know, she just gave me her husband's name and which I knew what he was.

And it wasn't until after Micah's passing that I started digging it myself and to that family and the background and came across Wayne Miller's background and I uncovered the same thing. I was like, oh my god, what a weird kind of a thing. But evidently, as the story goes, Ms. Coates-Kellis evidently embezzled some money from the church or something like that. Embezzled? Now that is interesting. Regina was either told a different story about this or she is misremembering the facts. An 80-something-year-old woman who didn't drive and likely had

dementia, how would she have access to that much money at the church? And why then is Wayne presenting it like it was a loan? If Regina was told that this was an embezzlement, then why? If everything was above board with this church loan, then why would anyone have to lie about the origin of Evelyn's alleged debt? Also, it's interesting that Regina says she didn't know about Micah's connection to Wayne Miller at the time that Micah hired her, because that could be a problem for her if she did.

From what our Cup of Justice co-host Eric Bland tells us, that would be a conflict of interest. Meaning, if Regina knew that the church had a lien on the house that she was buying, and the church was started by and run by Wayne, and she knew that JP Miller, her client's husband, was Wayne's son. Let's get back to Beth's interview.

And the church was Wayne Miller's, quote, church. And so he got a judgment, obviously, against her. But then Miss Caleb, I didn't know her at all. But when they got the judgment, of course, whenever the house came on the market for sale, I had been looking for a house on the inner coast of Waterway for quite some time. And that house came available from what I inside the house so people don't want to live in a house where people die. So anyway they needed to the conservator decided to put the house on the market obviously because there was no one to live there and they needed the money to

fund her stay at whatever you know facility that she was placed in for care and you know, that kind of stuff. So the house was in terrible shape. And there was kind of like a little bidding ward, I would say, to it. And thankfully, I won it. And completely gutted the house and the neighbors who come in and they go, there's not a nair bit of that old house in here anymore. I said, that's right. Oh, yeah. While Evelyn was dealing with the bankruptcy issue, her son, Clinton Califf, died in the house in December 2020.

According to a source of Dane's, he was dead for a week before Evelyn went to a neighbor to say that her husband wasn't waking up, which kind of gives you an idea of Evelyn's state of mind at the time. Regina said that she wasn't aware of the judgment against Evelyn and her house until she went to close on the house and said she wasn't aware of the amount of money that got sent to the church. Then Beth asked her about her representation of Micah's family against JP sent to the church. Then Beth asked her about her representation of Micah's family against JP Miller and his church, which was settled this past summer for an undisclosed amount that we understand to be under $200,000. Like we said, the settlement meant the

family had to give up their right to file a wrongful death case against anyone who might be found to have been responsible for or who might have contributed to Micah's death in the future, potentially meaning the police for ignoring her multiple cries for help, the therapist who signed off on what appears to have been a fraudulent commitment order, and meaning JP and his church. because again, there's still an FBI investigation open here and a lot of questions are still not answered. After you figured out that Wayne Miller had filed against Ms. Coates-Kalys, did you let Micah's family know about that when you were representing them or how did that all go down?

I didn't see any issue there. It was a house that I bought and the history that came with it had nothing to do with anything that was happening today. Okay. I'm not sure I understand what you're thinking there. Tell me what you're thinking there. Yeah, we're just so, oh my God, that house I bought, Candice owned, and she stole money from Wayne Miller's church, and Wayne Miller got a judgment. What Regina seems to be saying here

is that Wayne had a claim against Evelyn, and even though she bought Evelyn's house, which ended up serving Wayne's purposes in terms of getting paid back, it was not a connection that rose to a level where Regina felt like it had any relevance to her representation of the family. But again, that could be up for debate. One thing to note though, it's not clear when Regina learned of the house's connection to Wayne because the court order authorizing the sale of the house to her does not mention his name, but rather the name of the church.

I will say this. It appears that Myrtle Beach is a very, very small world. It's one of those connections that might loom larger in hindsight now that we all know so much about the Miller churches and their pastors. But it's also one of those connections that was immediately brought to our attention when Micah's death became public. It was like the second thing that was said. Micah's husband is JP Miller, who gave that weird sermon the morning after, and he is the son of televangelist Wayne Miller of Cathedral Baptist Church, who has a criminal history. Just saying.

Anyway, here's Regina again with her impression of the Evelyn situation at the time. That was kind of like the I don't remember if I found that there was a criminal charge or not. But it wasn't he was, you know, twindling her out of something. It was somebody stole some money from him and she probably knew he was a piece of crap and probably thought he wouldn't say anything because he's a piece of crap and probably stealing money himself. So, you know, that's just me surmising. But yeah, it was pretty clear that it had to do with her, you know, basically taking money or something out of the church.

When I closed on the house, we were dealing with a conservator who had the authority to act on her behalf. And that is come... It was an attorney, I think in Greenville or somewhere. I can't remember what any attorney that I knew around here. But at that point, they had placed her, you know, in a nursing home of some sort because of her, you know, mental health had declined to the point she couldn't take care of herself. She was emaciated and, you know, just from what I don't know this personally, this is what I was told by neighbors because everybody want to come tell me what happened

in the house. Again, there was no embezzlement and it's not clear if Evelyn had a conservator or when that occurred, but right up until her bankruptcy case ending, everything seemed addressed directly to her and not a conservator on her behalf. But how interesting, right? Let's go back to Wayne, shall we? We need more context to understand some things, such as is it normal for a church to lend an 82-year-old woman nearly $50,000 in five payments over the course of seven weeks? in five payments over the course of seven weeks. Is it normal for a church to allegedly spend its last penny giving these loans to the woman?

Wayne, by his own account, seems to have sacrificed the good of his church for the good of one person. He lost a lucrative insurance policy because of it, allegedly, and had to move into JP's church because of it, allegedly. So why did he do it? And don't give me this, he's a pastor and wants to help people. And nope, that does not work here because helping people does not include putting guilty

to four felonies in connection to his egregious mistreatment of students. Helping people doesn't include repeatedly giving large amounts of money to an octogenarian woman who might have dementia week after week when the situation, as Wayne described to the court, sounded pretty precarious with her son. Wayne admitted that he was content to wait until Evelyn died to get that money back. That's what the confession of judgment was for, by the way, so he could put Olien against her estate. Speaking of that, Evelyn is no longer with us.

She appears to have died this past December. And before that, she appeared to have moved out of the house during her bankruptcy proceedings. And as Dana Hanna discovered this week after a labyrinthine chain of phone calls, Evelyn died in a state-run nursing home in Chesterfield County, two and a half hours and five counties away from her home, where she reportedly didn't have any family. So how did she end up there? Is this a

case of an adult son draining his mother's resources until she was destitute or was something else going on here. If you or anyone you know has information about Evelyn Califf that contradicts the story that we told you today or contradicts any aspects of Reggie Wein's letters to the court, please reach out to us at info at lunasharkmedia.com or by directly messaging Craig Hannah on the Exposing Dirty Southern Money page on Facebook. We encourage you, by the way, to follow Craig Hannah's page. Also, anyone who has a relevant story to share about Wayne Miller, JP Miller, church loans, church real estate deals, Gary Crawford or any other attorney, South

Carolina probate court as it relates to potential elder abuse, organized harassment being used as a strategy to get a person to give up their legal pursuits or a way to rack up so-called evidence to have that person be declared incompetent by the state or appear crazy in court, missing estate money in Horry or Florence counties through questionable legal maneuvering, then we encourage you to reach out to us or to the Exposing Dirty Southern Money Facebook page. We will keep all interactions anonymous for anyone who is not willing or not able to go on the record.

And I want to note that we are only able to pursue the leads that include documentation or the ability to FOIA for documentation that would prove the case. Something isn't right here. And before long, we will find out exactly what is going on. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. True Sunlight is a Lunashark production created by me, Manny Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com.

Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. When I look back at my younger self, I remember the feeling of being bullied and disrespected. I remember hating that feeling. And I remember the day that I resolved to never let it happen again. When I founded Bland Richter with my partner Ronnie Richter, we committed to build a firm that demanded respect and that would fight the powerful on behalf of clients who felt powerless. We stand tall against the largest law firms in the state, the country, and the entire

world and we've remained true to the commitment not to be pushed around. Tenacious representation, proven results. We are Bland-Richter. Learn more about what we do and who we are by visiting bland richter.com. That's B-L-A-N-D-R-I-C-H-T-E-R.com.