Pineville, Missouri -- An arrest warrant was issued for a McDonald County man in connection to an alleged 2013 rape.
Earlier this month a judge filed first degree rape charges against 67-year-old Raymond Lambert.
According to court documents, a woman said in 2013 when she was just 10 years old, Lambert asked her to enter a shed at his Washburn home where he pushed her against a wall, grabbed her hair and raped her.
The victim said she reported the abuse to her mother and grandmother.
On Tuesday, a judge issued a warrant for lambert’s arrest and a $5,000 bond.
But this is not the first child sex crimes case filed against Lambert: In 2006, he was charged with child molestation, sodomy and rape. The prosecutor dropped those charges after the victims said they didn’t want to go through the pressures of a public proceeding.
At the time, Lambert was the pastor of the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church. Investigators said the crime was part of a sex ritual involving young children at the church and was facilitated with the help of Lambert’s wife, Patty.
An accused helper of Lambert’s, Laura Epling, also stood trial that summer on one count of Second Degree Statutory Sodomy for her alleged role in helping Lambert molest a 16-year-old girl. Brothers of Lambert, Paul and Tom Epling, were also accused of numerous sex crimes involving young children.
However, charges would be dropped later in 2008 by a McDonald County prosecuting attorney after the victims no longer wanted to put themselves through the pressures of a public proceeding.
