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.

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

"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."

 

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.

 

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