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	Trial Dates Set for Church Leaders in Molestation Case Columbia Tribune April 4, 2007 http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Apr/20070404News032.asp Pineville (AP) — A July jury trial was scheduled yesterday for a McDonald County church deacon charged with rape, one of five leaders of two southwest Missouri church communes accused of abusing young girls from their Baptist congregations as far back as the late 1970s. Paul Epling, 54, is the third defendant to have a trial date set. Circuit Judge Timothy Perigo scheduled a jury trial for July 24 for Epling, who faces one felony count of rape. Epling has pleaded not guilty to the allegation he attacked a 6-year-old girl in the late 1970s. The case is one of several that have arisen since last summer, when at least two young women contacted authorities to allege that they had been sexually abused by church elders over a period of years. They claimed the abuse happened at two related commune-style churches in McDonald and Newton counties. Charges against Epling's brother, Tom, were dropped early this year because of the statute of limitations. Multiple counts, including statutory sodomy and child molestation, are still in place against Tom Epling's wife, Laura; the Rev. Raymond Lambert of the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church in McDonald County; his wife, Patty; and another pastor, George Otis Johnston of the Grandview Valley Baptist Church North in rural Granby near Neosho. All of the defendants are related by blood or marriage. They have all pleaded not guilty and all have been bound over for trial. Johnston is set to stand trial starting May 22 in Newton County on eight felony counts of groping and fondling a girl from the time she was eight until she turned 17 and left the community last April. He also faces nine counts in Newton County for allegedly abusing a second girl and a related felony count in McDonald County. No trial date has been set yet in those cases. Another trial is due to start Oct. 9 for Laura Epling in McDonald County. She faces one count of second-degree statutory sodomy for allegedly helping Raymond Lambert molest a then-16-year-old girl at the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church.
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