BishopAccountability.org
	Repeatedly Abused by Pastor As Teens, Two Testify By Michelle Bradford Arkansas Democrat-Gazette October 3, 2006 http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/168527/ Pineville, Mo. — Two women testified Monday that their pastor repeatedly sexually abused them while they were young members of a rural southwest Missouri church. Raymond Lambert, pastor of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church in McDonald County, always gave a theological basis for the abuse, the women said. "He was happy for what we'd done," one woman, 21, testified in circuit court. "He said he was pleased, therefore God was pleased." Lambert, 51, is one of five church leaders charged with sexually abusing young women in their congregations. His wife, Patty Lambert, 49, is accused of permitting molestation. Her brothers, deacons Tom Epling and Paul Epling, are accused of child abuse dating back to the late 1970 s. The Lamberts and Eplings appeared Monday before Newton County Associate Circuit Judge Greg Stremel. He was assigned to the case Friday after an accuser asked that McDonald County Associate Circuit Judge John LePage be disqualified. Seven women have made claims against the church leaders. Monday's hearing was to determine whether the Lamberts will be bound over for trial, but Stremel deferred ruling until lawyers file briefs on several arguments in the case. Issues include whether prosecutors can support their contention that Raymond Lambert used psychological coercion to molest girls and whether sodomy charges pending against the Epling brothers apply in definition. Defense attorney Duane Coo- per told Stremel on Monday that sodomy laws in effect 30 years ago didn't include digital penetration and other acts of which prosecutors accuse the Eplings. Defense attorneys also argued that the statute of limitations has expired in the Eplings' cases. Assistant prosecutor Dan Bagley is waiting for the Missouri Supreme Court to address the statute of limitations in a similar, unrelated case before proceeding against the Epling brothers. Court documents accuse Paul Epling of abusing a girl from 1976 to 1983, telling her he was "preparing her body for service to God." Tom Epling is accused of abusing a girl from 1976 to 1978, beginning when she was age 4, an affidavit states. On Monday, a 28-year-old woman testified that Raymond Lambert first molested her when she was 16 at his mother's home on the 100-acre church compound east of Powell, Mo. The woman said Lambert later raped her in 1995 in the home of church members Tom and Laura Epling. The woman said she and several others left the church in April 2006. She now lives in Florida. A second accuser testified that Raymond Lambert began fondling her when she was 13. The woman, 19, said the abuse often took place during sessions in which Raymond Lambert "counseled" the girl, as he did other teenagers in the congregation. The woman said Raymond Lambert told her not to be ashamed about their sexual contact, that the acts of submission to him were acts of submission to God. "He said my body belonged to him," she testified. "That he was proud of me — that I should no longer be ashamed." The woman said that in 2004, Patty Lambert lay naked in bed while Raymond Lambert molested her. Patty Lambert faces a charge of permitting child abuse. An affidavit states Patty Lambert subjected the girl to sexual contact as part of a ritual or ceremony. Raymond Lambert is accused in a criminal complaint of eight felony counts involving child molestation, sodomy and sexual abuse. Raymond and Patty Lambert are stepbrother and stepsister. The fifth defendant in the case is George Otis Johnston, pastor of Grand Valley Baptist Church North, a Newton County, Mo., offshoot of the McDonald County church. Before Johnston's arrest in August, his church consisted of three or four dozen people who lived on a 10-acre farm leased in rural Granby. Johnston, 63, has pleaded innocent in McDonald County Circuit Court to charges of abusing a girl in the Powell church congregation. Johnston is accused of abusing the girl when she was a member of the Granby church, court records state. His arraignment is pending. The girl, now 20, said Johnston molested her while he was supposed to be tutoring her in algebra from 1997 to 2004, an affidavit states. Johnston told the girl that the sexual contact would "make her holy, and she would remain as pure as a virgin, even after she married," the affidavit states. All five defendants are free on bond.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.