Judge rules Baptist pastor not guilty of lewd act

OKLAHOMA CITY — A former member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee was found not guilty March 7 of offering to engage in a lewd act.

Lonnie Latham, then 60 and pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church, Tulsa, Okla., was arrested Jan. 3, 2006, after allegedly inviting a male undercover Oklahoma City police officer to his hotel room for sex. He pleaded not guilty in February 2006.

Latham’s attorney, Mack Martin, had argued that his client was charged under a lewdness statute that should be unconstitutional because the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 legalized consensual sex between two adult males. If the conduct is not illegal, he argued, then talking about it should not be illegal.

(TAB)