The Daily Populous Thursday December 18th, 2025 day edition
Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by StupendousMan1995

In an interview, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond called Campbell’s alleged crimes “horrific" and said he anticipates more victims may come forward.

"I cannot even imagine, nor could I attempt to imagine, the weight on their hearts, their psyche all these years," said Drummond, who added that the charges should serve as a warning to faith leaders who exploit their authority to harm children. “If you commit that crime, we’re going to find you. We’re going to prosecute you.”

Campbell was taken into custody Wednesday morning by members of the U.S. Marshals Western District of Missouri’s Midwest Violent Fugitive Task Force Springfield Division. He did not resist or try to flee, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Felix Carrion.

“He surrendered to us as soon as we surrounded his house in Camp Bell,” Carrion said.

Oklahoma authorities opened their probe into Campbell after NBC News published its investigation in May, tracing allegations of abuse to his earliest years in ministry. The accusers described a magnetic preacher who cultivated trust in children and their parents, only to exploit it behind closed doors.

Children saw Campbell as an almost mythical figure, blessed by the Holy Spirit with the power to speak in tongues, cast out demons and heal the sick. He gravitated to girls from broken homes. They later described being molested in a church nursery, in Campbell’s car and at his home while his wife and children slept upstairs.

Joe Campbell was the children's pastor at Eastland Assembly of God in Tulsa in the early 1980s when he met Kerri Jackson. Obtained by NBC News

Beginning when some of them were still teenagers, the women reported Campbell’s behavior to pastors, law enforcement and child welfare officials, only to watch him deny the allegations and continue preaching.

Jackson was among those who came forward to church leaders. In early 1988, at age 15, she traveled to Springfield, Missouri, to testify before a panel of Assemblies of God officials. Jackson said the men asked her to describe the abuse in graphic detail and invited Campbell and his wife into the room to challenge her account. Despite having received letters from other alleged victims, which had been collected to add weight to Jackson’s story, the pastors allowed Campbell to remain in ministry in Missouri, clearing the way for him to abuse another girl, according to interviews and police records.

The Assemblies of God finally expelled Campbell the following year after Phaedra Creed, at age 14, reported that Campbell had been abusing her for months while she lived with him and his family.

Creed went to the police in 1989, and Campbell was charged with forcible sex with a minor. But after being harassed by church members, Creed said, her mental health deteriorated, and she backed out of testifying, leading to the charges’ being dropped.

torcsandantlers on December 17th, 2025 at 19:33 UTC »

> His arrest represents a long-delayed breakthrough in a 40-year effort by some of his alleged victims to seek justice.

> The charges come seven months after an NBC News investigation revealed a pattern of child sex abuse allegations against Campbell and repeated failures by pastors, police and prosecutors to intervene.

We need child endangerment charges for everyone that lets this kind of monster just keep offending.

paypaypayme on December 17th, 2025 at 19:31 UTC »

It’s always the people you most expect

StupendousMan1995 on December 17th, 2025 at 19:30 UTC »

"Joe Campbell, a Pentecostal preacher who for half a century ministered to thousands of children across four states, has been arrested on child sex abuse charges, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.

Campbell was charged with one count of first degree rape and one count of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16, according to the charging document. U.S. Marshals arrested him Wednesday morning in Elkland, Missouri, and brought him to the Greene County jail in Springfield, where he was awaiting transfer to Oklahoma. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

It wasn’t clear if Campbell, 68, had an attorney. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. His arrest represents a long-delayed breakthrough in a 40-year effort by some of his alleged victims to seek justice.

The charges come seven months after an NBC News investigationr evealed a pattern of child sex abuse allegations against Campbell and repeated failures by pastors, police and prosecutors to intervene. Five women said he sexually abused them as children in the 1970s and ’80s when he was an Assemblies of God minister; nine others, including four men, said he showed them pornography, made lewd comments or touched them inappropriately during the same period.

Campbell’s rape charge appears to be tied to the alleged abuse of one of those women, Kerri Jackson. Jackson, now 53, says he molested her for years in Tulsa in the early 1980s, beginning when she was around 9. The attorney general’s office presented the case to a multicounty grand jury in Oklahoma City last week and the panel returned the indictment — a milestone Jackson and some of the other women had pursued for most of their lives..."