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	Court to Weigh Venue Change for Missouri Church Sex Trials By Marcus Kabel Associated Press, carried in Belleville News-Democrat [Pineville MO] January 9, 2007 http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/16419544.htm Pineville, Mo. - Three church leaders facing trial on charges of abusing young girls from their southwest Missouri commune will seek a change of venue or ask for a jury from another county to hear their case, the lead prosecutor said Tuesday. McDonald County Assistant Prosecutor Dan Bagley said the three are likely to be successful in a court hearing next week because Missouri law makes it easier for criminal defendants in smaller counties to move their trials or have jurors from another part of the state hear their cases. Attorneys for the Rev. Raymond Lambert; his wife, Patty Lambert; and Laura Epling, the wife of a church deacon, have filed motions saying their cases have received too much news coverage to get a fair trial in this rural county of about 22,800 people. All three have pleaded not guilty to a variety of felony counts including statutory sodomy, child molestation and rape in the alleged abuse of young girls over several years at their McDonald County farm community, the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church The change of venue motions will be the main issue at a pretrial conference next Tuesday in McDonald County Circuit Court, Bagely said. "I'm sure that the court's going to grant the motion that at a minimum a jury be bused in from a different county," Bagely told The Associated Press, adding his preference would be to keep the trial here. The trials, possibly with the Lamberts tried together and the Epling case heard separately, may not happen until summer, Bagley said. Laura Epling re-entered a plea of not guilty Tuesday at her first hearing since she was bound over for trial last month. She is charged with one count of second-degree statutory sodomy after allegedly helping Raymond Lambert molest a then-16-year-old girl. Her husband, Tom Epling, is a church deacon. Charges against him were dropped earlier because the statute of limitations had run out. Tom Epling's brother, Paul Epling, who also was a deacon, was scheduled to have a hearing Jan. 29 to determine if he goes on trial. Raymond Lambert faces seven felony counts of child sexual abuse, and his wife faces one count of child molestation. Patty is a sister of Tom and Paul Epling. In a related case in neighboring Newton County, Raymond Lambert's uncle, George Otis Johnston, who was pastor of an allied church commune near Neosho, is set to stand trial February 23 with jurors from another jurisdiction. Johnston has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of abusing a girl over an eight-year period, beginning when she was 8 years old.
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