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Former Children’s Pastor Joe Campbell Indicted in Oklahoma and Arrested in Missouri

Prosecutors revived the 1984 case by invoking an Oklahoma law that pauses the clock when a suspect lives out of state.

Overview

  • A multi-county grand jury indicted Joseph Lyle Campbell, 68, on one count of first-degree rape and one count of lewd or indecent acts with a child under 16.
  • The indictment alleges he raped an 11- or 12-year-old in his home garage and sexually abused a 14-year-old at Eastland Assembly of God in Tulsa in 1984.
  • U.S. Marshals arrested Campbell in Elkland, Missouri, and he is being held in Greene County as he awaits transfer to Oklahoma.
  • The Attorney General’s Office is applying a tolling statute to overcome prior statute-of-limitations barriers, a strategy recently used in another Oklahoma clergy case.
  • An NBC News investigation detailing multiple accusers and earlier institutional failures preceded the probe, and several women are now urging additional potential victims to come forward.