HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Mica Miller’s family — who helped inspire a statewide coercive control bill — is hopeful after a second one was recently pre-filed. 

Police say Mica died by suicide in April 2024 at Lumber River State Park in Robeson County, North Carolina. Soon after, allegations from friends and family of hers surfaced accusing her husband at the time, Myrtle Beach pastor John-Paul Miller of coercive control gaining national attention.  

For domestic violence victims and survivors, abuse isn’t just physical. It can show up as isolation, constant threats, frequent name calling or constantly monitoring someone. For Mica her family says she experienced all of this but was not protected by the law.  

“95% of the things that I speak is coming from Mica,” Abigail Francis, her sister said. “Mica is the one pushing me, she’s the reason for all of this. She would be doing it herself.”  

The name Mica Miller has rippled across South Carolina and the country when it comes to raising awareness about domestic violence and coercive control. 

Through public records requests, News13 found Mica filed multiple police reports stating she was being tracked and harassed. 

Her attorney Regina Ward told News13, Mica kept a journal where she recorded many instances of extreme control by her former husband. 

This new bill, S. 702 would not only cover those married or who share a child but also those dating or formerly dating and people living together. 

“Somebody can always be controlled,” Francis said. “It doesn’t matter what your relationship status is. This will help broaden again the reach of people that this will help.” 

Republican senator Stephen Goldfinch of Murrells Inlet took on the issue in April and says he sees this bill having a better chance than previous ones. 

The bill outlines coercive control as:

• Isolating the person from friends, relatives, or other sources of support;
• Depriving the other person of basic necessities;
• Monitoring the person’s communications, movements, daily activities and behavior, finances, economic resources, or access to services;
• Frequent name-calling, degrading and demeaning of the other person;
• Threatening to harm or kill the person or a child or relative;
• Threatening to publish private information or make reports of defamatory or false claims to police or authorities;
• Compelling the other person by force, threat of force, or intimidation to engage in conduct from which the other person has a right to abstain or to abstain from conduct in which the other party has a right to engage; or
• Engaging in reproductive coercion which consists of control over the reproductive autonomy of a person through force, threat of force, or intimidation.

Many have deemed it “Mica’s Law” before it was ever filed.  

“I don’t have any problem with it being named “Mica’s Law”, but I know that there are 100 others out there,” Goldfinch said. “I mean, that’s my only thing, is there are a lot of people out there that just didn’t get the publicity that Mica did. Hers got the publicity because there’s just a lot of bad stuff happened around the periphery of that case.”  

Goldfinch says both bills sit before chairman Luke Rankin’s senate judiciary committee. 

“So I don’t want to speak for him, but I know he’s supportive of the idea,” Goldfinch said. “It’s just a matter of whether or not we can get it out of committee, and I think we can.” 

Francis had words of her own for Rankin.

“So, Senator Rankin, please get this a subcommittee so they can fine tooth comb this and make South Carolina safer.”  

Francis hopes to see more legislators look into and support the bill. The general assembly returns on Jan. 13. 

Several states including California, Connecticut and Hawaii have adopted “coercive control” laws, while similar efforts are pending in Florida, Maryland, New York and Washington, according to the group Americas Conference to End Coercive Control.

Count on us for updates as we follow this story from the statehouse.