Ex-ORU student sentenced for molestation

Tuesday, February 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A former Oral Roberts University student who molested young boys attending soccer camp at the college was sentenced to 95 years in prison. Avery Demont Lawson, 20, of Temple, Texas, was given 20 years each on four counts of lewd molestation and five years for sexual battery. The sentences were to be served concurrently, said Tulsa Associate District Judge Bill Beasley.

Lawson also was sentenced to 10 years to be served consecutively for attempted lewd molestation, Beasley's court clerk said. The charges involve six boys. In a plea agreement, other counts of lewd molestation, forcible sodomy and indecent proposal to a child were dismissed.

Lawson was accused of molesting the boys after a man reported in July that his 13-year-old son had been sexually assaulted at an ORU summer soccer camp, according to police. An affidavit said Lawson "admitted to committing several sexual assaults of six different juvenile boys who were attending soccer camps and math/science academies" on the ORU campus. The university expelled the theology student upon his arrest.