awakening church

Ronnie Gorton will be 58 years old the first time he's eligible for release from prison. He sat, still emotionless, as the Judge Joe Walker handed down an effective 38-year sentence Friday morning. "The defendant was the lead pastor in a church and used his position of authority to commit these offenses, he groomed minors for his sexual perversion," Walker said. The first … [Read more...] about Former pastor Ronnie Gorton sentenced to 38 years in prison

Ronnie Gorton has lost his youth pastor look but he hasn't lost his emotionless stare. Sporting a goatee and dressed in a red jumpsuit, which signifies he's segregated from the rest of the jail population, he sat unexpressive from behind the counsel table during the first part of his sentencing hearing Friday. The second part – the actual sentencing – will come next month … [Read more...] about ‘This went on for awhile’: Two new victims speak in Ronnie Gorton sentencing hearing

[metaslider id=2771] Former Atoka pastor Ronnie Gorton and his father, Bob, embraced in the hallway before walking in to listen to the verdict. As each guilty verdict was read – two counts of exploitation of a minor, two counts of contributing to a minor, two counts of furnishing alcohol to minors, seven counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, 10 counts of statutory … [Read more...] about ‘He preyed on the flock’: Gorton found guilty on all counts

Every single night. That’s how often the victim in the first of Ronnie Gorton’s three cases said he endured being sexually abused. “It just never stopped,” he said. The abuse began the day he moved into Gorton's Drummonds home and, said the teenager, intensified over the next year and a half. He testified Gorton, who was then the pastor of The Awakening Church in Atoka, used … [Read more...] about ‘It just never stopped’: Ronnie Gorton victim testifies he underwent daily abuse