OKLAHOMA
KJRH
By: Tyler Dunn
MCALESTER, Okla. – A 76-year-old McAlester man was arrested Tuesday on 19 counts of sexual abuse after police received claims he molested several children while in a position of authority more than 30 years ago.
McAlester police detectives were alerted to the alleged sexual crimes conducted by Ronald Lawrence back in August when his first accuser reported abuse at the hands of a Jehovah’s Witness church leader.
A woman now in her 40s told detectives Lawrence, an elder at McAlester’s Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, abused her when she was just eight years old, inviting her to his home, where he fondled her and raped her in his bathtub, according to her testimony found in Lawrence’s arrest warrant, which was issued Tuesday.
Two other accusers, also in their 40s, then came forward with similar stories of abuse. Both said they were very young, with one telling investigators the molestation took place from the time she was 10 until she was 13 years old. She reported being assaulted in Lawrence’s swimming pool, at the lake and in the janitor’s closet at the First National Bank where he worked, his arrest warrant indicates.
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