Prosecutor: Technical issue ended Mo. church abuse case

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- A southwest Missouri prosecutor said a technical issue led her to drop sex-abuse charges against members of a commune-style church community, not a lack of cooperation from the suspected victims.

McDonald County prosecutor Janice Durbin, who had remained silent on her reasons since dropping the case Nov. 6, told The Joplin Globe for a story Friday that there was a technical issue linked to problems with pretrial depositions of the two women who said they had been abused.

"It was a technical issue and not a personal one with the victims," Durbin said.

Durban's office said she unavailable to talk to The Associated Press on Friday because she was busy with depositions.

Durbin has said her decision was not final and charges could be refiled, although she has not said when she will make that decision.

Two women who left Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church last year allege they were repeatedly assaulted as children by the Rev. Raymond Lambert, pastor of the religious community that had as many as 100 people who lived on or near a 100-acre farm in rural McDonald County. Lambert's wife, Patricia Lambert; and his sister-in-law, Laura Epling, were charged with assisting in the abuse.

All three had pleaded not guilty and were scheduled for trial this week.

Durbin told The Globe she dropped the charges after the witnesses appeared for the Nov. 5 deposition but did not want to talk without attorney Erin Willis, who represents on of the women.

Willis has said the prosecutor failed to notify the victims properly of the deposition date.

Willis told the AP last week that the victims showed up anyway for the deposition by defense lawyer Robert Evenson. But the time for their deposition was pushed back from early afternoon to after 5 p.m. while Evenson interviewed another church member, Willis said.

Willis said she then had to leave and the suspected victims did not want to be deposed without her present.

Willis said she and the suspected victims were not contacted by the prosecutor before the charges were dropped the next morning, Nov. 6. She said Durbin should have sought a continuance instead.

Willis also denied the defense attorney's claim that the two suspected victims had stopped cooperating with prosecutors. She said they were willing to testify and stood by their accounts.

Willis said state statutes on victim rights required Durbin to notify the women before dropping the case.

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Information from: The Joplin Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com