Missouri pastor accused of molesting girls to go on trial

NEOSHO, Mo. – One of six church leaders accused of ritually molesting girls at two southwest Missouri churches will stand trial on allegations that he fondled a young teenager as often as once a week over at least three years.

A Newton County judge Monday bound over George Otis Johnston, 63, for trial after testimony from a 20-year-old woman who alleges Johnston, the pastor of her close-knit church commune, molested her in his trailer home when he was supposed to be tutoring her in algebra.

“He told me I needed to become one of his angels,” the woman told the court in a preliminary hearing Monday.

Johnston is charged with nine felony counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation. His arraignment was scheduled for Oct. 26.

The woman said Johnston would put his hands inside her clothes to touch her genitals and breasts and kiss her with his tongue, which he called “angel kisses.”

It is the second of two felony child abuse cases against Johnston, who headed a commune-style Baptist church that was an offshoot of another church compound in a neighboring county. In the other case, Johnston faces eight counts of statutory sodomy.

He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Five adults from the other church face multiple felony counts including sodomy and rape for repeatedly molesting young girls from their congregation, often using religious arguments to make their alleged victims comply.

Those charged are Johnston’s nephew, the Rev. Raymond Lambert, 51; his wife Patty Lambert, 49; her brothers, church deacons Paul Epling, 53, and Tom Epling, 51; and Tom’s wife, Laura Epling.

Those cases have not been bound over for trial yet while a judge considers additional legal arguments from both sides.

The woman who testified Monday said she never told her mother or five siblings about Johnston’s alleged abuse, which she said happened between the time she was 12 or 13 and when she turned 16.

She said she thought her mother would not believe her “because he (Johnston) was a man of God.”

She said she and other children of church families were encouraged to call Johnston “grandfather” because he was the spiritual leader of their live-in community, which was located in the small town of Newtonia before it moved around three years ago to rural acreage outside Granby.

Asked by Johnston’s lawyer why she didn’t report the alleged abuse, she said: “I didn’t know if I should question him or not because he was my grandfather and my pastor.”

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