By Ben Morgan and FOX23.com News Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A former youth pastor at the Eastland Assembly of God Church in Tulsa has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree rape and one count of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16 by a multi-county grand jury.
68-year-old Joseph Lyle Campbell pleaded not guilty in court on Monday. He was released with a GPS monitor and other restrictions, including no unsupervised contact with children.
He is scheduled to return to court on February 2nd.
According to the indictment, Campbell is accused of raping an 11- or 12-year-old girl in the garage of his home between May 1 and October 1 of 1984.
He is also accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl at the church, which the indictment says occurred between March 1 and December 1, 1984.
The U.S. Marshals Northern Oklahoma Violent Crimes Task Force, in coordination with the U.S. Marshals Western District of Missouri and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, found and arrested Campbell in Elkland, Missouri.
Campbell previously led children’s ministries at Eastland Assembly of God in Tulsa and later established the non-denominational Lakeside Family Worship in the Missouri Ozarks. Campbell most recently served as a pastor at Morningside in Blue Eye, Missouri. The U.S. Marshals Service said Campbell is accused of raping and molesting underage girls since the 1970s.
“It is our sincere hope that the arrest of Pastor Campbell will help bring closure to the victims in this case who have been victimized over decades,” said Clayton Johnson, U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
