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	Fringe Pastor Bound over for Trial on Porn Charges By Derek Spellman Joplin Globe February 3, 2009 http://www.joplinglobe.com/neosho_newton_mcdonald%20county/local_story_033210130.html NEOSHO, Mo. — A Neosho man identified as a self-proclaimed pastor of a fringe church will stand trial on six charges of possession of child pornography. Randall "Danny" Russell, 50, pastor of the Acts II Church in rural Neosho, was bound over for trial after waiving a preliminary hearing Monday in the Associate Division of Newton County Circuit Court. The child-pornography charges stem from photographs that investigators reportedly found on Russell's laptop computer, which Newton County authorities seized last year while executing a search warrant at a compound that includes Russell's home and business. Besides the six child-pornography allegations, Russell faces 14 other felony charges: one count apiece of statutory rape in the second degree and child abuse; two counts of child molestation in the first degree; two counts of statutory sodomy in the first degree; two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor; and six counts of statutory sodomy in the second degree. He has pleaded innocent to those charges, which are to be heard in McDonald County on a change of venue. Russell was bound over for trial on 12 of the 14 charges in June 2008 after three women alleged during his preliminary hearing that he raped, molested or sodomized them when they were minors. The locations of the alleged abuse vary from a public park to church offices after services to Russell's home where the church is located at 11285 Mulberry Road. Russell was arrested and charged in late April after the first alleged victim contacted authorities. While authorities were executing a search warrant at 11285 Mulberry Road, Russell allegedly acknowledged photographing the first alleged victim when she was 16, according to testimony by Detective Mike Barnett of the Newton County Sheriff's Department. Russell also allegedly acknowledged a sexual encounter with one of the alleged victims in Morse Park in Neosho and subsequent occasions of oral sex, although he reportedly told Barnett that he thought the girl was 18 when they had sexual intercourse for the first time. In the wake of those charges, the other women came forward with their allegations, prompting the prosecutor's office to file another round of charges against Russell in mid-May. Russell was bound over for trial on the two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after a preliminary hearing in October.
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