McAlester Police Arrest Church Elder Accused of Sexual Abuse 30 Years Ago

By Dylan Goforth
Tulsa World
November 27, 2013

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/mcalester-police-arrest-church-elder-accused-of-sexual-abuse-years/article_d4ce3980-56fd-11e3-9e1c-001a4bcf6878.html



McALESTER -- McAlester police arrested a 76-year-old church elder Tuesday on allegations that he molested children at a McAlester church more than 30 years ago.

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Ronald Lawrence was charged Tuesday with 11 counts of lewd molestation, five counts of forcible oral sodomy, two counts of forcible sodomy and one count of rape by instrumentation.

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McAlester police Sgt. Chris Morris said a woman reported to police last month that she had been molested by Lawrence when she was a child. Morris said the alleged abuse took place more than 30 years ago.

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Morris said police spoke with two other alleged victims during the month-long investigation. Police don't know what spurred the victims into coming forward but believe there could be more who might also want to speak with police now�that the allegations have come to light.

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"If someone had an incident happen and they want to tell us about it, we would be glad to talk to them," Morris said. "This is an ongoing investigation."

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Morris said Lawrence, an elder at a Jehovah's Witnesses church in McAlester, admitted to police he "may have inappropriately touched" one of the victims.

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A representative from the church was not immediately available Tuesday evening to discuss the allegations.