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	Former N.Y. Pastor Pleads Guilty to Rape The Associated Press, carried in The New York Times June 2, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Missing-Girl.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin NORWICH, N.Y. (AP) -- A former Baptist pastor who touched off a nationwide search in March when he disappeared with a 15-year-old farm girl for a month pleaded guilty Friday to rape. A judge dismissed 16 other state charges against Lewis J. Lee, 54, in exchange for the guilty pleas. Lee, who is married, had been the girl's pastor at Christian Baptist Church in the central New York town of Sherburne before the two disappeared in mid-March from her family's dairy farm. The girl left willingly, but the state's legal age of consent is 17. The pair set off a nationwide search, traveling as far west as Wyoming before Lee was arrested in April in Hagerstown, Md. The girl was reunited with her family. Lee faces a total of 9 1/3 to 28 years in state prison on the seven rape counts. He also faces a five- to 30-year federal term after pleading guilty Wednesday to taking the teenager across state lines to have sex with her. Sentencing on the federal charges is Sept. 22. Sentencing in the state case has not been set.
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