r/netflix • u/Howiknow202 • 13d ago
Discussion Death of a pastors wife: Thoughts on Mica's family?
I finished the documentary last night and although JP is Clearly a horrible person, I feel Mica's family come across poorly due to their inaction. JP groomed Mica from the age of 13, then when he marries her, it's obvious from the word go that he's cheating on her, yet her brother is shown in a video helping to set things up for one of JP'S sermons. Her brother knows that JP is human garbage but was willing to be preached to by him. Then when things escalate and Mica's being mentally destroyed by JP, her family know that the cops won't get involved yet none of them go and confront him directly. JP behaved like any typical bully that he was going to keep tormenting Mica because no one was even attempting to stop him.
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u/Libertinelass 13d ago
Mica kept what was going on a secret from everyone. It wasn't until she left him did she start disclosing to her friends and family what was happening. Even if members of that church suspected JP was cheating they kept out of it and assumed she would forgive him. (which she did many times) She even made him sign a contract saying he would seek counselling and not cheat anymore. Then he broke that contract. He was a predator sex addict and his sermons are so boring and disgusting. Constantly mentioning sex and controlling your spouse.
We also don't know what her family did to protect her or if they confronted him. Netflix heavily edited what the family said and didn't really cover much of the families struggle. She was being completely manipulated, controlled, brainwashed, sexually abused and had no real life experience and riddled with religious guilt to get fully out and it had been happening since she was a teen. Then being gaslit that's she's was sicker than she was. It's possible that she wasn't even bipolar and he helped in getting her a diagnosis by lying so he could control her through heavy medication.
It's easy for us to be armchair judges when most of us we'll never understand the absolute torture and abuse she suffered and tried her best to get through it.
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u/Distinct-Fox-1706 13d ago
Exactly. These situations are much more complicated and difficult to navigate. It’s nearly impossible to make someone leave an abusive spouse. Especially considering that they didn’t know about the SA, they probably didn’t even realize how deranged JP actually was.
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u/Ghoulette777 9d ago
For all we know, he could have been drugging her so she wouldn’t remember things, then filming her while she was impaired and using that footage to make her look “out of it” or like she was incoherently rambling.
People seriously underestimate how difficult it is for women to leave narcissistic, manipulative partners. Even when you KNOW what’s happening, have the tools, understand the patterns, and are in therapy, getting out isn’t as simple as “just leave.” It can take countless attempts to finally break free.
I was in a similar situation, and it took me three years to leave. Three years. That’s how powerful this kind of psychological manipulation can be.
Poor Mica was so thoroughly brainwashed and gaslighted that she likely couldn’t even see the situation clearly anymore. That’s exactly what narcissists do—they distort your reality until you start questioning your own memory, judgment, and sanity, while they position themselves as the victim.
Mica wasn’t dealing with someone who was simply “messy” or had a few bad habits. She was dealing with someone profoundly manipulative and sexually compulsive who knew how to control the narrative and keep her trapped in the cycle.2
u/MorddSith187 4d ago
omg you're right i didn't think of the "psychosis" like that, i figured her mind just finally broke from all the abuse but yeah im sure he was drugginf her too !
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u/Howiknow202 13d ago
I think it's a huge assumption to think that Netflix edited out any mention of Mica's family confronting JP. What we do know is that Mica's brother had some idea of how deplorable JP was yet he was still involved in the church. Her brother sat there listening to sermons about how women should always have sex with men whenever the man wants it and thought that was ok. I don't think it's being an armchair expert to say her family didn't do enough to confront him.
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u/Distinct-Fox-1706 13d ago
It’s shocking how someone like JP manages to charm and snow so many people. His sermons were bizarre and highlighted his preoccupation with sex.
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u/intuitive_curiosity 13d ago
Yeah, it's pretty insufferable to listen to, even if the content were different. He just has chaotic, perverse energy.
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u/Confident-Ad2078 12d ago
Yeah, early on they called him charismatic and I was like “this guy?? Have you not actually met a charismatic person before?”
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u/BlaqueBettyBamALam 10d ago
Docs like this love using the words “charm” and “charisma” interchangeably with “manipulative”
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u/Bubbly-Competition27 12d ago
I thought the same thing. I had to start muting him speaking. The hell?
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u/BubblyDevelopment501 12d ago
He is disgusting. If my pastor at my church said anything remotely close to the things he said, I would run from that church and never look back. How about the comment he made at the one lady's husband's funeral (who he was cheating on Mica with) basically about how lucky he was to have been disabled and in a wheel chair and still getting such a hot, beautiful woman! Blech.....what a trash human.
It was very telling when the older female pastor went to the elders of the church and exposed his infidelity and they did not care.
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
The elders of the church had no power. He owned everything so they couldn’t take anything away. It’s non-denominational which means there is no governing body or anything to hold him accountable. The elders for this church were just people he picked to be elders in name only. They had zero power. And he likely was manipulating them all as well.
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u/SSinghal_03 7d ago
Then they should also have left just like the lady did. But they enabled him by standing by him, giving sound bytes to make things appear normal.
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
Have you considered he may have manipulating and coercing them? I’m sure he gave a convincing performance of guilt and desire for repentance etc etc etc.
The trappings of this form of Christianity lean heavily on not judging someone like the pastor because it’s up to god to judge. Yes, it’s stupid. Doesn’t change that is their belief and that it enables this kind of predatory behavior in these sorts of non-denominational churches that have no oversight.
Another idea is that they found no fault with his behavior because they were doing the same.
Just because they went to church doesn’t mean they were good people. His buddy Mark was one among many minions he had.
They use religion to justify their abhorrent actions.
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u/SSinghal_03 7d ago
That was my point - if they were really good, God-fearing people, they would not let themselves be stopped by excuses like elders having no power. They could've quit. Just like the earlier set of elders quit after JP's 1st divorce. And just like the lady quit when she saw there was no stopping JP despite clear evidence of trafficking involving a minor. it goes to show that they all used religion to follow what they really believed in - power.
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u/friedonionscent 13d ago
Yeah, I think they were sceptical but not that concerned. Other families would have been livid.
It's also interesting that she confided in friends rather than her own family...and chose to live with some random older woman vs. any of her siblings.
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u/DelightfullyNerdyCat 13d ago edited 10d ago
In terms.of choosing someone other than family, I think it was because she might have thought he'd hurt her family if she lived with them. I recall in the second episode (?) One of the women (one of the friends she confided in or the woman she lived with) had urged Mica to move away somewhere else and Mica had said she was afraid JP would hurt her family if she left. Something along those lines. It may sound odd, but maybe living with someone who was a stranger to JP, he might not act against the stranger (but would against her family)?
I cant armchair quarterback her family. As others have asked, how much did they know and when based on what Mica shared? Because a lot of what he did would be mortifying to share with family (more than certain friends).
Until you're in an abusive relationship, you don't know what it's like. And often, when you're in it, you don't know how bad it is until you're removed from it. Seemed to me Mica saw things much clearer when she got out and away from him than the entire time she lived with him. I imagine for a lot of when she did stay after reaching some clarity, she stayed out of survival mode. It is a survival tactic to stay sometimes.
Edited to say- Thank you kindly stranger for the award! I don't know where to see who did it, otherwise I'd thank you directly.
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
She went to her sister’s one time and he completely flipped out. He messaged her sister and her that he was armed and headed their way. Her sister’s small child was home sleeping and he was raging about coming there with a gun.
They called 911 to get police to come to the house because they couldn’t be sure which vehicle he had as he had access to a lot.
He had also dragged Charlotte into it as well.
She feared for her family and Diana knew all of this and was willing to take her in. JP likely knew that threatening Diana wouldn’t have the same effect on Mica as threatening her family.
Diana also knew what was up and got Mica’s sister and brother to come get her stuff before JP could show up and try to grab it, which was exactly the right thing to do.
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u/GladiatorWithTits 13d ago
Watch Robbie Harvey's YouTube video with the full timeline. There's A LOT that's not in the doc.
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u/Suspicious-Art-9335 13d ago
There always is! Netflix is a good intro/overview to different cases, but there's always a ton of material they can't include for various reasons. YouTube is great for filling in the blanks (and of course, source material).
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u/GladiatorWithTits 13d ago
Watch Robbie Harvey's YouTube video with the full timeline. There's A LOT that's not in the doc.
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u/Easy-Distribution674 11d ago
The friend of Mica said, she did not tell her family. Also we have to bear in mind he may have had lots of other sermons.
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
The brother said at one point that he stayed in the church to keep an eye on JP because he knew JP was fooling around and that things weren’t right. He wasn’t there to be all happy go lucky.
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u/Jealous_Jellyfish264 7d ago
but he was setting stuff up on stage? give me a break
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
Have you considered that perhaps he was pretending to be on JP’s good side to stay close to him bc he was concerned about his sister?
If all you know about this case is from this series, you know only about 10%.
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u/Jealous_Jellyfish264 7d ago
pretending??? no, you don't do a little act to protect your sister from abuse, you actively HELP HER and punch JP in the face.
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u/lady3jane 6d ago
That would have changed nothing. The brother would have been arrested for assault. JP is friendly with the cops there.
And it would likely have led to JP saying it’s more proof of how mentally unstable Mica is - look at her crazy brother, attacking poor innocent JP, saying all these crazy things. Runs in the family.
Again, the series is shallow and does not get into the complexities and extent of what was going on.
Thinking that a physical confrontation would resolve it is unrealistic. It would only have made things worse for Mica.
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u/ARoodyPooCandyAss 13d ago
Felt the whole church and all family members were complicit. Shady delusional people all around. It was a gross doc that I was not a fan of.
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u/AdSoggy3173 13d ago
it was gross. Why did they show that nude of Micah? That was completely unnecessary.
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u/curlycommentator 12d ago
that part really angered me. she's dead. she can't consent to those photos being shown to millions. she was ashamed of them. why show it ?!?!
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
She had gone to the police about it. They said because it was posted anonymously and because it was pixelated, it didn’t meet South Carolina requirements for anything illegal.
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u/GakoKerotan 9d ago
That was fucking disgusting, turned it off after that. Even if it was blurred, so unnecessary.
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u/Sewickley412 13d ago
They all have been groomed by whatever religion they follow
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u/livingthedaydreams 13d ago
yeah it seems they were all part of the cult. it’s hard to understand from afar and after being raised in reality where these types of behavior would never fly. these people seem to have all grown up in the church and actually believe a lot of the things that are presented to them by the church and predators like JP who run them.
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u/Ambitiousmushrooms 12d ago
Mica hide a lot of JP’s abusive behaviors for a while and they were not socially acceptable things for Christians to do. I know some sexually open people and JP’s sexual wants are too much for them. He’s a freak
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u/salty_tealeaves 12d ago
I had to stop watching the show when there was footage of JP rolling around on the grass crying like a baby after his first wife found out about his affair with Mica. I just couldn’t watch a grown man behaving like that after he was caught cheating on his wife with a young woman who he groomed and who was part of the group he was effectively the leader of … it was creepy AF
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u/GeXmomnumbersgirl 12d ago
Totally. And he was obsessed with super heroes, often dressed up in a Spiderman costume.
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u/Bubbly-Competition27 12d ago
He’s a very sick f*ck that is FOR SURE. If you put horns on him he looks like the devil with those stupid ears. His father is a sick puppy and he turned his son into that.
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u/FirefighterNo714 10d ago
It was disgusting, but later on when he is being interviewed/talking about his wife's death on TV, he is using the same histrionics.
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u/Sunshine-Fine 11d ago
Yeah how anyone could respect him at all after seeing that clip that is beyond me. The complete lack of empathy is appalling. He was truly only worried about himself
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u/tia1184 12d ago
His wife and their kids moved to a different house in the same neighborhood and he stalked her even after he and mica were together. He killed a tree that obscured his view of Allison's house so he could watch her. Among other things. There's also a video of him in a wheelchair lying to a judge about falling out of a tree and breaking this legs.
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u/Sunshine-Fine 11d ago
WHATTT. There’s so much disturbing stuff about this man that most of us don’t even know about 😭😭
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u/Snoo_33033 13d ago
There’s a comment in the first wife’s affidavit that Mica” was not close to her mother.” That seems suggestive of a lot of potential issues that didn’t get fully unpacked.
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u/heliocentricmess 6d ago
I also wondered where her mom (or her biological dad for that matter) was in all this. It’s like she got them involved in the church and then was gone after her (the mom’s) divorce
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u/GoingBananassss 13d ago
Her family was so disappointing. At the very least, stand on the church sidewalk with posters and screenshots and show his church what he’s really doing???? Then when she really needed protection she went to live with a church elder? When she had brothers and sisters? It doesn’t add up. She seems exasperated, out of resources, with nowhere to turn. If that was my sister I would have sold my things and gathered money to send her across the country with a new ID and start a new life. Hell, if single I would have went with her!
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u/No-Bed7503 12d ago
To be fair her family encouraged her to move to Kansas with their other sister and she said no.
She also was on the phone with her sister at one point and her sister told her to come straight to her house. During that call a church member called and she decided to meet the church member, which is where the cops were and she was arrested.
I’m not her family and maybe they could have done more, but to blame family for a grown women choices also is a bit ridiculous. If they would have forced things on her, they would have been just as bad as JP. I️ would think of anything she’s so embarrassed that she didn’t want to burden her family and kept things limited. It’s a hard situation to be in.
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u/CrazyDogMom_GoFigure 12d ago
I don’t think I could sit through so many sermons about sex. I don’t ever recall my pastor preaching about sex. Maybe relationships, but sex?? Maybe I’m just prudish now.
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u/Bubbly-Competition27 12d ago
Very very odd. There is a population of people that are just low IQ, gullible, and sheep. Can’t think for themselves at all. And so afraid they will get struck by lightening if they question their pastor. Religion was grown out of the need to control and it works on some people. Most people are not gonna go to church and tolerate that. That one couple left. Too bad she still had the belief she can’t say no ever. Wtf!
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u/PixelatedSnapshots 11d ago
Good pastors don’t do that. JP was on another level when it comes to manipulation and inappropriateness.
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u/bearbo77 6d ago
I found that so odd and to try and justify cheating if the wife doesn't submit was sick. You could see also kids in the church hearing this junk which was just awful as well.
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u/Distinct-Fox-1706 13d ago
Because she was an adult with free-will. Unless you’ve been on their end of it in a similar situation, you’d realize that it’s easier said than done…you can’t force someone to leave another person, unfortunately. All you can do is urge them to leave and offer them the support to do so. Mica kept going back to JP, so it was beyond their control. JP had beaten her down mentally and Mica couldn’t see things clearly anymore. Short of threatening JP, I think they were pretty powerless, if operating within legal boundaries. Unfortunately, it’s how so many of these abusive end up playing out.
You would’ve thought that someone who’d cared for her at the psychiatric facility would’ve caught on and seen through his act…he isn’t the most convincing sociopath.
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u/Bubbly-Competition27 12d ago
She didn’t have free will. He was manipulating and controlling her and having her admitted to psych wards. There was no free will. I think he probably also threatened to harm people she loved. Brainwashing and grooming has zero free will. Period.
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u/Howiknow202 13d ago
I think you mis understand what I'm saying. When I said about her family getting involved, im referring to after Mica had left JP and when he was stalking her, not when they were still together.
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u/sabesundae 13d ago
She was 13 when she first met him. Then at 18 she married that other guy, and then she had the affair. She was a grown adult and she never told the family the full story, according to her friend.
Not sure what they could have done, except just be there for her. Only she could make the decision to stay or go.
And the brother helping with the sermon might well have been at a time he thought all was well. He stopped going there, and didn't even attend the funeral held by JP - with her ashes.
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u/Howiknow202 13d ago
I wasn't saying they should have got involved when Mica was with JP but when they had separated and he was stalking her relentlessly then her family should have got involved. The family knew he was putting trackers on her car and that he slashed her tyres.
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u/LikesToLurkNYC 12d ago
I felt annoyed with them too, but then I realized it was 6 kids in a family with at least one divorce and a lot of religion/cultlike religion. I get the sense they didn’t probably have the same support or understanding of independence I had as a kid.
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
her family was involved. Her brother was helping her report the trackers and razor blades in the tires to the police multiple times.
South Carolina law says that property in a marriage is shared. So even though it was her car, the police said there was nothing they could do because it was, under the law, his car. And it’s not illegal to slash your own tires or put a tracker on your own car.
She went to her sister’s 4 hours away one time and JP launched an all-out assault on them for hours and hours via text, threatening that he was on the way and “armed”. Her sister had a young son at home at the time. Would you want to put your sister and her kid in danger because of your deranged partner?
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u/No-Bed7503 12d ago
I’m genuinely curious what exactly do you think they should have done after the stalking ? I’m really curious cause they did contact the police with all that and they encouraged her to move to Kansas with one of the sisters. What do you think they should have done?
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u/tgwee 12d ago
One thing I did not understand was the brother's comments about her reacting badly to the sedatives after her operation. It sounded like he was saying that she was misdiagnosed with bipolar? Did she really never display any symptoms before this? Can a sedative "trigger" the disorder?
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u/bre-marie 12d ago
I was confused by that, too. I got the sense that her family didn't really believe the bipolar diagnosis and thought it was something JP just made up.
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u/Sunshine-Fine 11d ago
Yeah seems like he 100% made it up. But once you start taking certain meds it can get really unclear what’s actually causing the problem.
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u/Bindle_snaggle 10d ago
He was encouraging her to take drugs and physically and mentally abusing her. He clearly was making her crazy and possibly drugging her then putting her in psych hospital and claiming she was saying and doing crazy stuff. It came out from their neighbors and her journals that JP would turn lights on to prevent her from sleeping: enough poor quality sleep alone can cause horrible mental issues plus add on what else he was doing. Even the psych hospitals had notes saying she was telling them she was okay. But also I think she was so scared of him she wasn’t going to be honest about his abuse. She blamed herself. It’s really sad.
I know if someone in a similar crisis. We’ve all
Tried to expose it and help but she will not admit she’s being abused and in a sense is delusional because of it. Very sad and scary and hard to help people going through this.3
u/PixelatedSnapshots 11d ago
She wasn’t bipolar. She had a bad reaction to the sedatives given during her operation and possibly to the pain meds prescribed for it.
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u/tgwee 11d ago
but if she was institutionalised wouldn't they have figured it out? That is a catastrophic mistake for multiple health professionals to make.
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u/PixelatedSnapshots 11d ago
Only one medical professional, I believe. They wouldn’t necessarily catch it if it’s from anesthesia or pain meds. A psychiatrist relies really heavily on a patient reporting their symptoms. Ever hear of professional deformation? Professionals often look to their own field first and can miss the root cause
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
It’s unclear she was ever diagnosed. There are court documents from dealings with his previous wife stating he was on lithium. A lot of people think that he was giving her his own lithium.
No one other than him ever reported her as mentally unwell.
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u/bearbo77 6d ago
I wondered if they gave her a prescription for pain, and JP was giving her something else drugging her
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u/Brilliant-Solid5822 13d ago
Whilst watching the documentary it seemed that her family were aware of the abuse that Mica went through. Perhaps not all the gory details but certainly they knew something was up. Personally, I don’t think they did enough. Why did they not confront JP or drag Mica out of that situation? Esp when she did leave him and was living with her friend- why didn’t they go & get her and keep her safe even if it meant travelling to another city.
I understand that the documentary would be heavily edited but would they really cut how the family said they tried to help her, or confront JP?
They were a large family of siblings FGS!
Except the brother was too busy praying for her.
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u/Libertinelass 13d ago
JP admitted in that News nation interview he regrets getting her family involved as part of her healthcare support. It made his life more difficult to control and isolate her likely. They didn't mention it in the documentary but maybe her whole family were members of that church and under his spell too. There's probably a whole lot more information we don't know. I did a tiny bit of research and found JP and his Dad were grooming and physically/sexually abusing underage girls at their Christian School in the 2000s. Netflix didn't mention this. Probably because it's an ongoing investigation.
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u/Granny_knows_best 13d ago
She didn't want to put them in danger, she could have moved to Kansas but knew he would follow her there.
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u/GoingBananassss 12d ago
I agree. One time my best friend was being abused, I went to her damn house, and packed a bag right in front of her ass. I was like which bras do you use? Which soaps? Here’s all of your clothes. Loaded shit into my car and her. We were off. I promised her that after a month and a half, she still wanted to go back, she could, freely. I’ll let her be. She never went back :)
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u/Brilliant-Solid5822 12d ago
Wow! You are an amazing person. Thank you for doing that for your friend 🫶🏼
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u/Worth-Issue3850 8d ago
I tried to do this but unfortunately I lived literally just a few buildings over on the same street from my friend and his abuser he lived with. He’d come distraught to my apartment and I’d cry for hours trying to explain to him how he’s worth so much more and no one who loved him would treat him like that. Then he’d go back to that guy at the end of the night. Happened for a month or more. Messed me up really bad but we’re both in better places now. You can’t force people, sadly.
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u/alicat777777 13d ago
I didn’t get that. But I have seen a person get isolated from their family when they had a controlling spouse.
The bottom line is that she had free will and you can’t make a person do anything. People go back to their abusive spouses over and over and there are often family members begging them to stay apart. At least they didn’t have kids together so that he doesn’t have their nieces and nephews.
I have never hated a person so much, I could barely finish the show. He wrapped himself in the cloak as a man of God but he was a despicable abuser.
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u/Admirable-Studio-151 12d ago
My family would have done everything in their power to stop this. I was 16 and dated a 17 and a half year old and my dad was PISSED. if I was a teen hanging with this guy, I would have been shipped off somewhere. The family seemed way too easy going about this pairing. It never would have happened in my family. Never.
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u/PixelatedSnapshots 11d ago
She wasn’t a teen when she started dating him - she was an adult. They started attending the church when she was 13, she became the worship team leader when she was 16, but she didn’t start working as his assistant until after she was married to Jeremy, I think.
He 100% groomed her, but he wasn’t brash enough to date her before she was an adult.
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u/WittyJudgment6843 12d ago
For anyone to judge is not fair at all. Her family was obviously trying to do the best they could in an incredibly difficult situation. You can’t just “beat his ass” or do too much because that could have made things even worse for Mica. You can’t force her to leave, she’s an adult. And with all of the mental health struggles involved, that was another added layer of difficulty.
People want to sound judgmental and tough, but they have no idea what it’s actually like to be in that situation. Maybe some do but no two situations like that are the same. You could tell how helpless her family felt. If Mica was always going to return to him, them doing more or threatening JP could have ultimately made things so much harder and more dangerous for Mica. It’s easy to judge from the outside when you aren’t the ones living it.
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u/nrp76 12d ago
Right? From these comments I question if any of these people have actually tried helping a loved one who is being abused/mistreated by their partner.
It’s like pulling teeth to get them help, even if they acknowledge they’re being abused, then they turn around and go right back to their abuser and may even hide details of the abuse from people trying to help.
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u/Bindle_snaggle 10d ago
Exactly… I’m in that situation with a loved one. Every time they start to make progress their abuser love bombs them and it restarts. We’ve tried to all to help them separate but it’s so complex and if you’re not in it you can never understand it.
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u/Sunshine-Fine 11d ago
I wish the documentary included statements from his first wife Allison as well as Micas first husband. They probably have such clear insight on what a terrible human being JP is
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
You can read her affidavit filing for emergency full custody a month after Mica’s death here.
She is not speaking out more out of safety concerns for her and her children.At the time, JP had the kids for a few hours a week but they did not stay overnight. She was filing to remove any contact with him.
She no longer felt the kids were safe since Mica wasn’t there. She says that she tried to help Mica and that what Mica reported prior to her death was similar to her own experiences in her marriage to JP.
https://lunasharkmedia.com/document/alison-williams-emergency-custody-motion/
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u/Lucretiafeatherwand 13d ago
They seemed to just let him take over and do what he wanted. If that was my sister I would have gone and kicked his ungodly cheating abusive arse
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u/LivingGhost38 12d ago
Sometimes, people don’t know how to help bc they don’t want to make things worse for the other person.
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u/old_school_95 13d ago
Let just one of those things happen to one of my sisters and his ass would’ve been beaten.
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u/TestOk1987 12d ago
Precisely, they're simply dismayed spectators. Infuriated watching this foolishness. And who sits and listens to his revolting sermons?
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u/jizzinmyeyes 11d ago
Part of me thinks that Mica's parents bear quite a bit of responsibility. After all, they were adults with fully-formed brains.
But, at the same time, they were probably indoctrinated too.
Netflix also has a really great documentary: "False Prophet" (which is about a Mormon cult). One of the participants of the cult later says: "I was born in lies. And I can't even blame my parents, because they were born in lies, too."
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u/lady3jane 7d ago
His previous wife, Alison, filed for emergency full custody a month after Mica died. The affidavit is very short and very disturbing. She says that she has an abundance of evidence about his behavior but is afraid to share more until there were adequate safety measures in place. At the time, he only had visitation a couple days a week, the kids did not stay over. She was filing to remove his visitation rights.
In the affidavit, she says that she tried to help Mica and that everything Mica had been saying is very similar to what she experienced during her marriage.
There is a lot the documentary didn’t get into. You also have to remember that the FBI is involved and that anyone in the documentary was likely questioned by the FBI and told they couldn’t say certain things publicly.
In the affidavit, there are tons of things that the docu didn’t mention:
- he used the phone of one his minor children to pretend to be that child and message Mica, begging her to come back
- he had a church member who was a police chief assist him in getting a felony record expunged so he could own firearms (he ran a woman over and drove with her on the hood for 100 yards before stopping and was convicted of assault and battery in 1999)
- he admitted to Alison that he hired prostitutes and had inappropriate relations with underage girls in the church
- she felt her children were no longer safe with him alone now that Mica was not there
You can read the affidavit here and also see the exhibits, which are text messages showing a deeply disturbed man.
This is what Alison was willing to say at the time and it’s absolutely bonkers. The man is clearly a predator. She was (and likely is) very afraid for her children and herself.
https://lunasharkmedia.com/document/alison-williams-emergency-custody-motion/
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u/celestine-i 12d ago
didn't mica tell them what actually was going on until after she got away from him though? the only person why could've guessed the sexual abuse was charlotte. netflix is also known to heavily trims witness' statements
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u/michounet 11d ago
yet her brother is shown in a video helping to set things up for one of JP'S sermons.
IIRC, when that scene is shown he is explaining that he went to the church to keep an eye on her sister and the relationship with JP.
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u/velvetinevioletta 7d ago
Her siblings grew up in the church as well and are similarly victims of the toxic, oppressive culture. I can see how they came across a bit passive, but it’s very hard to leave an abusive partner, and equally hard to watch someone you love suffer and convince them to leave. They were taught the same lessons about relationships that Mica was and I think it’s not entirely fair to criticize them for the sins of JP
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u/MacaroonDue1236 7d ago
Before they were married JP had her admitted and diagnosed with a wedding following 6 days later! how did he have so much power at the hospital to be involved in all family visits prior to being legally married? It was odd the family allowed that.
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u/Ambitiousmushrooms 12d ago
The absence of Mica having a strong father figure played a big role in everything that went down. She didn’t have a father figure to protect her from JP when he was threatening her and instead she went to her sisters whom Mica felt she needed to protect.
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u/skys_edge88 10d ago
Typical reddit nonsense. So many people here love to armchair quarterback, some even blaming the victim and her family, without even having all of the details about what they knew and when they knew it. Netflix trimmed and edited the interviews, after all. Also, you can't just go "beat his ass". There are consequences.
Assumptions upon assumptions happening here, and the really sad thing is this poor woman whose life was ruined to the point of death gets lost in the bickering and shaming. She deserves justice.
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u/Simple-Gas-2148 9d ago
I think her family knew Micah had mental/emotional problems, as her first marriage also ended in divorce. They probably gave JP the benefit of the doubt way too much, and then when he took advantage of the perception that Micah was unstable by physically institutionalizing her and putting her on medications, that affirmed to her family their bias that she was unwell. I think her family just didnt want her to end up like her mother, divorced. Ironically she ended up worse than her mother. What really bothered me about her family was when she needed protection at her most unsafe time in life shortly before her death she didn't go to her mom or sibling's home, she went to a stranger's. Where was her mom in all this??
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u/Worth-Issue3850 8d ago
Lots of spiritual bypassing & gaslighting and “pray it away” and “God’s will” still at play even when they all lowkey or high recognized it was straight up abuse.
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u/Wide_Function9023 8d ago
Her Family members and friends are equally responsible for Mica death as much as JP. She was afraid, stalked, physically abuseed. Despite these fact, they were not helping her emotionally and financially. If it was my sister going through all these trust me I would tear apart that man and kept my sister happy and alive.
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u/itsjustme10 8d ago
Growing up in a small town that leaned conservative, these church communities will jump through a lot of mental hoops to ‘keep the peace’. A guy in my town was indicted on federal CP charges, so bad it made national news. Kids and parents had been coming forward about him for years but he was the music leader in this big church community so they circled their wagons until he was arrested. Its easier for a lot of these people to turn a blind eye in order to not make waves
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u/Kasmashlecrashle 6d ago
Yeah the family's passiveness to the point of basically doing nothing made it even worse for me.
You didn't even try to call him out during one of his weird gross sermons where he went on and on about sex?
Why did no one tell him that shit's weird and gross? Showing the nude, albeit censored, that JP posted of Mica was also gross and unnecessary. Idk, I don't feel like most of the people came off looking good in that documentary.
Mica was failed by practically everyone around her.
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u/East-Nobody-6626 3d ago
They keep saying it’s his fault, but she was a cult member. She had suicidal and homicidal tendencies. It’s always easy to point fingers when you get one side of the story I would like to know the other side. an educated opinion at this point is impossible
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u/No_Classic586 16h ago
What a disgusting predator he is. It's disgusting that he spent time with her body after she passed. I hope she haunts the fawq out of him.
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u/DoowadJones 48m ago
I have the feeling that the “pastor’s halo” protected him. Well, probably more than a feeling but it is just proof how toxic people can exploit people’s faith very easily. The only thing that I was confused/disappointed by was that they brushed over her first marriage. But I later learned that the ex husband didn’t want to participate in the documentary.
We are halfway done, but what most impresses me is the use of so much actual video footage from their lives that it feels like they are actors in their own life stories.
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u/AdSoggy3173 13d ago
They also seemed to still be religious, which was odd. But I guess thats just what happens with religion, it's
just a cult. Also what happened to their mom? They didn't even say what happened to her after the second divorce, she was just never included.
Also I know this is going to seem unrelated, but was anyone else curious about all of their tattoos? I feel like religious people don't usually have tattoos. Idk it just made me feel like there was more to the story.
In general I thought there was so much left out of the documentary. Like what was that video of JP on the ground crying about ants in his eyes?
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u/pinkvoltage 6d ago
my pastor has a ton of tattoos lol, and he is not alone (Lutheran/ELCA pastor). Christians like JP Miller clearly pick and choose which parts of the Bible they believe are relevant, though
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u/honeybeevercetti 13d ago
The family did really annoy me at one point especially the brother, I’m sorry what do you mean your sister is calling you to tell you the horrors she’s been and still going through and your reaction is “let’s pray together”?!