When flamboyant evangelist Tony Alamo goes to court next month in Newhall on charges that he ordered followers to discipline a young boy by striking him 140 times with a board, he will be represented by an attorney who may be walking familiar ground.

A federal jury in Ft. Smith, Ark., on Thursday found religious cult leader Tony Alamo innocent on a charge that he threatened to kidnap a federal judge.

Though hunted across the nation by federal agents, religious cult leader Tony Alamo lived an open, if not completely public, life before his capture this month in Florida.

Cult experts say the jailing of Tony Alamo and the seizures of most properties belonging to the Holy Alamo Christian Church will probably mean the end of the cult. But in interviews with several of Alamo’s followers who flocked to a courthouse in Tampa earlier this month to support him, it is apparent that they view the jailed pastor as a near-martyr whose captivity will rally them to the cause. They emphatically denied that his church would founder.

After nearly three years on the run, fugitive Saugus cult leader Tony Alamo was arrested Friday in Tampa, Fla., by U.S. marshals and local police, authorities said.

Arkansas: A court order had forbidden members from taking remains of Susan Alamo. Marshals had seized the property to pay off debts.

Religious organizations whose members work in commerical businesses operated for the support of churches are subject to all Federal wage and hour laws, a Federal district judge has ruled.