Request for sealed record is contested

Ex-church worker subject of hearing

A former Immanuel Baptist Church ministry employee who was accused of sexually abusing an elementary school-age child and received a suspended jail sentence as part of plea agreement is asking a Little Rock judge to seal his court record.

The same former employee remains under investigation after a second victim came forward, according to court documents.

Patrick Stephen Miller, 37, who was originally charged with second-degree sexual assault, pleaded guilty instead to misdemeanor harassment in January 2022.

He was given a one-year suspended sentence, with 19 days credit for time already served, and wasn’t required to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.

Miller’s motion, which was filed in July, is opposed by two of his former students — the initial victim and a second student who has stepped forward, according to a court filing.

Their families and the state of Arkansas also oppose the motion.

Sixth Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Adrienne M. Griffis is requesting a hearing so that the state can “present clear and convincing evidence that this case should not be sealed.”

Joseph Gates, an attorney and Sunday School teacher at Immanuel with three young daughters, is representing Miller’s former students.

They were in third or fourth grade at the time Miller abused them, Gates said.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Karen Whatley, who was scheduled to hear the case Thursday afternoon, was out sick. The hearing has been rescheduled for Feb. 1.

Canaan Chapman, Immanuel’s former student pastor, attended Thursday’s court hearing to show support for Miller’s former students.

On Instagram afterward, Chapman urged anyone with pertinent information

to speak out.

Victims should know they have advocates “who will represent you, hear your story, advocate for you and help you find the justice that you deserve,” he said.

Miller, who moved to the Oklahoma City area after leaving Arkansas, was also on hand for Thursday’s court proceedings, but declined to comment.

“I don’t want to say anything. Not without my attorney present,” he said. His attorney, Alex A. Morphis, of Little Rock, showed up later, but also declined to comment.

Griffis, who initially did not oppose sealing the record, filed an objection after learning that a new investigation was underway.

Miller worked initially as an intern at Immanuel, according to a 2013 church social media post, and later joined the staff.

He was working as assistant director of children’s ministry at the time the abuse occurred, Gates said.

News that Miller has a criminal conviction — and wants it sealed — has come as a surprise to many of Immanuel’s members.

Gates said Steven Smith, the lead pastor since 2017, did not inform the congregation at the time Miller was arrested, charged with a crime, convicted or sentenced.

In a letter Friday to the congregation’s deacons, ministers, finance and personnel teams and Sunday School leaders, Gates criticized the lack of disclosure, saying it had prevented the families of other victims from learning the truth and coming forward.

Smith withheld the news even though the first victim’s family had asked him to inform the parents in 2018 of other “potentially affected girls,” Gates wrote.

“As a result, no other victims of Patrick Miller came forward during the time of the public prosecution,” he wrote.

Ultimately, Miller was allowed to plead to a misdemeanor, he noted.

A few months after Miller’s conviction, with stories about abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention in the news, Gates says Smith portrayed Immanuel as a place where children have been successfully shielded from abuse, telling the congregation, “We have had, for many years, protocols in place that, by God’s grace, have proven effective in the prevention of abuse.”

The declaration, Gates told church officials Friday, was untrue.

Details about the allegations against Miller are contained in court filings.

According to a “victims’ response to defendant Patrick Miller’s motion to seal” submitted on their behalf by Gates, Miller was responsible for teaching children while the adults were gathered elsewhere.

“During Sunday night and Wednesday night services, he routinely played ‘hide and seek’ with his class. This would include Defendant Miller hiding in a darkened and locked closet with one of the students. During these ‘hiding’ sessions in a darkened and locked closet, Defendant Miller would tickle, grope, and molest the young adolescents he was charged to teach,” the response stated.

The first victim came forward in early 2016, reporting that Miller had taken her in a dark closet three or four times and rubbed her stomach under her shirt, previous court filings say.

Two years later, she told a friend that Miller had touched her elsewhere as well.

She subsequently told investigators that Miller had also touched her vagina, court records state.

Thursday, Smith declined to discuss the case on the record, instead issuing a written statement which he said should be attributed not to him but to the church.

“We have actively participated with law enforcement in every step of this process,” it stated. “We grieve any form of abuse and are vigilant about the safety of children.”

Speaking to the Democrat-Gazette on Saturday, Smith declined to say whether he had told his congregation about Miller’s arrest and conviction, saying he would seek advice, craft a message and then release it in writing.

“I’m doing this in concert with some communicators to help me shape this because I’m so far out of my expertise,” he said Saturday afternoon. “It’s not a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question,” he said.

In a written statement released later in the day, Smith acknowledged that he had not let the congregation know about the allegations of child sex abuse when they arose.

“During the law enforcement investigation, church leaders did not publicly discuss the matter,” he said. “There’s a very real concern that doing so could have undermined or negatively affected the ability of prosecutors to make their case and obtain a conviction.”

After learning that another former student had stepped forward to accuse Miller, church leaders again shared the information with law enforcement officials, but did not notify the congregation, he said.

“In all cases, public discussions of criminal matters can undermine the ability of the prosecution to bring an offender to justice,” he said.

In the statement, Smith emphasized the church’s commitment to protecting kids.

“As we tend to the spiritual needs of our church members, nothing is more important than keeping them — and their children — safe,” he said. “Patrick Miller deceived and betrayed us with this horrific behavior. He is fully responsible for what he did.”

Miller was hired to assist with the children’s ministry on May 19, 2014 and underwent a criminal background check, Smith said.

Miller’s last day of work was Jan. 6, 2016, he said.

“About two months later, on March 10, 2016, parents of a child who was abused by this man approached church leaders and informed them of these allegations. Within minutes, church leaders reported these allegations to the authorities,” the statement continued.

“Church leaders knew this man had applied for employment at other churches, which is why they contacted those churches. After he left the church, the matter was in the control of law enforcement officials who charged him,” it stated.

While the church has taken steps to protect children and has cooperated with law enforcement officials, “We can always do better and we’re working with national experts to create even more safeguards to protect the people in our church.” the statement continued.

In a text message, Smith said he is unaware of other victims and would have nothing else to add to the written statement.

After leaving Immanuel, Miller was employed as associate kids pastor at First Moore Baptist Church in Oklahoma, according to a letter contained in court records.

His resignation from that congregation was announced in July 2018 — more than two years after the first allegations against Miller had surfaced.

He was leaving because he had decided it was “time for him to move on to the next step in God’s plan for his life,” the church’s parents were told.

Miller was arrested in December 2018.

Immanuel Baptist Church, founded in 1892, has long been one of the city’s largest and most prominent Baptist congregations. Its membership rolls have included Bill Clinton, the former governor and the nation’s 42nd president.

It’s unclear whether the church informed the Arkansas Baptist State Convention about Miller’s charges and conviction, though officials there are aware of more recent developments.

In text messages, convention spokesman Craig Jenkins said he and Rex Horne, the convention’s executive director and Immanuel’s pastor from 1990 to 2006, were aware of a “recent legal request concerning an incident in 2016” but “have no further details.”

Jenkins said Horne would not address whether the convention had shared details about the crime with its churches or other questions, writing that Horne “does not wish to elaborate further than that.”