McAlester Congregation
of

Jefwvafi
701 West Gene Stipe Boulevard

s 'f1Jitnesse.s

P.O. B(!X1315 McAlester, Oldahoma 74502

Phone 918-423-7640

July 27, 1994

Watchtower Bible & Tract Society
25 Columbia Heights
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Dear Brothers:
We are writing to notify you of a situation involving an elder, Ronald H.
Lawrence that has been brought to our attention and dealt with the past 3 weeks.
Brother Lawrence has resigned as an elder and a copy of his letter to the McAlester
Body of Elders is attached.
The situation involves an accusation of uncleanness and/or loose conduct by
Brother Lawrence with a 26 year old married sister,
that supposedly
happened 12 to 14 years ago.
Sister~
approached an elder, Wendell Marley, wanting to report a
wrongdoing. Two elders (Brother Marley and Daryl Watson) met with Sister'9t
and her husband
(a baptized witness) that same day. She made the accusation
that Brother LawTence had on numerous occasions fondled her breasts, inside her
bathing suit, while swimming together at Brother Lawrence's house. While swimming
in the lake north of town, he supposedly had acted inappropriately by taking her legs
and feet and placing them knowlingly in his private groin area. She also stated that he
had on numerous occasions talked with sexually explicit language (such as describing
circumcision in detail). Additionally, she claimed that he had questioned her regarding
whether or not she had seen another young sister undress. Sister provided
names of two other women (one a regular pioneer sister, the other a disfellowshipped
woman) who she believed had information that would tend to verify her accusation.
The day after meeting with Brother and Sister
Brothers Marley and
Watson talked with the two other individuals who were believed to possibly have
information regarding such activities (no names were mentioned). The result of such
meetings was that no other witness to such activities or similar activites could be
obtained.
Brothers Marley and Watson then met with Brother Lawrence to inform him of

 me accusauon. tte aemea t11ewrongaomg. However, the next day, Brother Lawrence
came to the office of Brother Marley and while not admitting the wrongdoing as stated
by Sister1111111a seemed to be admitting a measure of some questionable activity. He
used such phrases as: "We did do a lot of horsing around in the pool"; "If she says I
did something, I'm sure the accusations are real in her mind"; "I did not intentionally
do anything wrong". Later though, Brother Lawrence flatly denied any wrongdoing.
Since there was only one witness, with no admission of wrongdoing, Brothers
Marley and Watson informed Brother Lawrence that no further action would be taken
and the matter would be left in Jehovah's hand. There was no indication or
implication to Brother Lawrence that he should consider resigning as an elder.
A few days later, Brother Lawrence decided to resign as elder. He stated that
since others in the congregation knew of the accusation (Sister
had talked to
another sister prior to coming to the elders), he felt that he could not effectively serve
the best interests of the congregation. The body of elders accepted his resignation and
announced such resignation to the congregation on July 14, 1994.
It should be documented for the record that some elders (but not all) on the
body feel there has been tendencies toward wrongdoing in this area by Brother
Lawrence over a period of years in the past. Nothing has ever been proven in this
regard. There was reason to believe that he did on several occasions meet with sisters
alone for the purpose of giving counsel on problems they may be having (in violation
of clear directions from the Society). He did resign from serving as an elder about
1980 because of complaints by his wife pertaining to sexual demands in the marriage

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If additional information is needed in order to claiify matters, please let us

know.
Your brothers,
McAlester, OK
Congregation Service Committee

akJm,111!JJI~.
Wendell Marley
Presiding Overseer

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Ken Giles
Secretary

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Daryl Watson
Service Overseer