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	Charges Dropped against Pastor Accused of Abusing Girls By Kevin Murphy Kansas City Star June 11, 2008 http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/660144.html Prosecutors have dropped charges against a southwest Missouri pastor accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls at a rural church community. The case against Raymond Lambert, filed in 2006, drew wide attention but was dropped because the alleged victims didn't want to endure the "scrutiny and pressures" of a trial, McDonald County prosecutor Janice Durbin said in a statement released this week. "This has been a long and difficult case for everyone involved," Durbin said. She said the dismissal doesn't mean the charges were not valid. "Prosecution of cases must be weighed against the pain, stress and anguish to the victims," she said. An attorney for Lambert did not return a call Wednesday, but Lambert has denied the charges in the past. The 53-year-old was accused of abusing the girls at a 100-acre homestead near Pineville, Mo., where his family and other relatives settled some 30 years ago, taught their own children and built several houses. Lambert was supposed to go on trial June 30 on four counts of second-degree child sexual molestation, three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy and one count of sexual abuse. The crimes were alleged to have happened between February 1995 and April 2004 while Lambert was pastor at Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church in Powell, Mo. The girls said the abuse took place at the Pineville residential community and that Lambert told them they were giving their bodies to him as a service to God. Lambert's wife, Patricia Lambert, was accused of assisting him in the abuse, but those charges and charges against three Lambert relatives for various other sex-related offenses previously were dropped. To reach Kevin Murphy, call 816-234-4464 or send e-mail to kmurphy@kcstar.com
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