Church Leader Had Been Accused of Sexually Abusing Two Girls
Associated Press, carried in News-Leader
November 30, 2007
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071130/NEWS01/711300374
Pineville — The McDonald County prosecutor said she hopes to refile sex abuse charges against the pastor of a southwest Missouri church early next year.
Prosecutor Janice Durbin told The Associated Press on Thursday that her aim is to refile the case against the Rev. Raymond Lambert; his wife, Patty Lambert; and their sister-in-law, Laura Epling.
Before charges were dropped in early November, Raymond Lambert had been accused of abusing two girls over several years and the two women had been accused of helping him in the abuse.
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| McDonald County prosecutor Janice Durbin talks about her decision to drop sex-crimes charges against the Rev. Raymond Lambert and members of his family Thursday. Photo by Mark Schiefelbein |
They had pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial was scheduled for earlier this month.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, welcomed the decision to refile the case after earlier calling the decision to drop it inexplicable.
"The road to justice for child sex abuse victims is often rocky but usually, when victims can hang in there, some closure and healing and prevention happens at the end," Clohessy said.
Wendy Murphy, a victims' rights attorney, author and former prosecutor who teaches at the New England School of Law, said that dropping a case so close to trial when witnesses are still cooperating is "extraordinary."
The dropped charges had fueled some criticism from local law enforcement and concern by a state representative about how the prosecutor's office has been run since Durbin was elected to her first term a year ago.
Durbin said Thursday that she had to drop the charges because of a scheduling problem and that she always had planned to refile the case.
"It wasn't the facts of the case. It wasn't the witnesses. It was a technicality, a scheduling issue," she said in an interview at her Pineville office.
Durbin said she is "very actively" working on refiling the case.
"There was never any intent for the case to be over," she said.
Two women who left Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church last year allege they were repeatedly assaulted as children by Lambert, pastor of the religious community that had as many as 100 people who lived on or near a 100-acre farm in rural McDonald County.
Erin Willis, an attorney for one of two suspected victims, had complained that Durbin did not notify the women ahead of time about dropping the charges.
Willis could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Robert Evenson, an attorney for the Lamberts and Laura Epling, also did not immediately return a call.
The case was dropped Nov. 6, a week before trial and a month after Durbin told the AP she was confident about prosecuting the charges.
At the time, there was no immediate public explanation from Durbin's office for the move. Willis said the victims should have been told in advance under state laws on victim rights.
Durbin said she had little choice but to drop the charges after Evenson filed a dismissal motion Nov. 6 based on the victims' decision not to be deposed by him the day before.
Willis has said her client and the other victim were not properly notified of the deposition.
When they arrived anyway, the time for the interview by the defense lawyer got pushed back into the evening and Willis could not attend, so both victims asked for it to be rescheduled.
Durbin said the defense lawyer cited that as grounds for asking a judge to dismiss the case or bar the victims from being witnesses. Without the two women, Durbin said she would not have had a case.
It was impossible to push back the trial date to allow for new depositions ahead of trial, Durbin said, because the court calendar was too full.
Durbin said if she hadn't dismissed the charges then, the judge could have ordered the trial to go ahead without the two women as witnesses, and then the prosecutor could not have refiled the charges.
"My intent was to try and preserve the case," Durbin said.
Durbin's explanation comes amid criticism from local law enforcement and questions from Rep. Marilyn Ruestman, whose 131st District includes much of McDonald County.
Detective Jeff Sutherland wrote to the state's highest disciplinary body for attorneys this week to complain about Durbin's handling of two cases, including a plea bargain for a man charged with repeatedly molesting his 12-year-old stepdaughter.
The Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, under its confidentiality rules, cannot confirm receipt of a complaint or whether it is investigating.
Ruestman said she had received a copy of Sutherland's letter. The detective's complaint and the dropped church case raise concerns about how a new prosecutor is running the office, she said.
Durbin said she had not heard from Ruestman or the disciplinary office. She declined to comment on the plea deal with Jeremiah Flanary, 33, who faces sentencing in January after pleading guilty to two counts of statutory sodomy.
The deal would give him five years probation and a 120-day sex offender program in prison. The maximum term for each count is seven years in prison.
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