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	Trial Date Set for Lamberts By John Ford Neosho Daily News [Missouri] June 7, 2007 http://www.neoshodailynews.com/articles/2007/06/07/news/02trials.txt A trial date was set Tuesday for an area pastor and his wife, both of whom face child sexual abuse charges. Raymond and Patty Lambert will go to trial on Nov. 13 in McDonald County Circuit Court. Judge Timothy Perigo will preside. The trial setting took place during a pre-trial conference Tuesday morning. A pre-trial conference has been set for Sept. 18 for Raymond Lambert, according to electronic court documents filed on Case.Net. Raymond Lambert daces a total of seven felony counts: Three Class C felony charges of second degree statutory sodomy, two Class C counts of second degree child molestation, and two Class D felony charges of second degree child molestation. Meanwhile, his wife faces a Class D felony count of second degree child molestation. Charges allege Lambert acted in concert with his wife in molesting a girl who was under the age of 17. In another charge, the McDonald County pastor is accused of acting in concert with Laura Epling, the wife of a church deacon, in molesting a girl younger than 17. Epling faces a Class C felony charge of second degree statutory sodomy. A pre-trial conference has been slated for July 17 in Pineville, with a jury trial set for Oct. 9. Another church deacon, Paul Epling, will go to trial Aug. 27 on a rape charge, an unclassified felony. And an arraignment date has been set for George Otis Johnston, a Granby pastor who faces a variety of child sexual abuse charges in Newton County. Johnston, Raymond Lambert's uncle and pastor of the Grandview Valley Baptist Church, is expected to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Monday on 17 felony charges: Nine Class A felony charges of first degree statutory sodomy, six Class C felony counts of second degree statutory sodomy, and two Class C felony counts of first degree child molestation. The charges were refiled last month by the Newton County Prosecuting Attorney's office as a way to combine two separate cases against Johnston. Last summer, a young woman alleged Johnston had molested her as a child, beginning when she was 8 years old and continuing until she left the Granby commune shortly after her 17th birthday. Meanwhile, her older sister came forward with allegations Johnston had also sexually abused her when she was a child. She testified some of the alleged contact took place while the pastor was supposed to be tutoring her in algebra. Johnston also faces a Class A felony charge of child molestation in McDonald County. A pre-trial conference has been set for 10 a.m. June 19 in Pineville with Judge Timothy Perigo presiding.
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