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Tony Alamo

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The alleged enforcer of evangelist Tony Alamo must pay $3 million in restitution to two boys he’s believed to have beaten bloody on the preacher’s behalf and left haunted for life, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The teens have also sued Alamo.
» Full Story

TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) – A federal judge has delayed a sentencing hearing for evangelist Tony Alamo, who was convicted on charges of taking young girls across state lines for sex, AP reports.

U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes changed the date Tuesday from Oct. 26 to Nov. 13.

According to the Texarkana Gazette, if sentenced to the maximum on each count and if ordered to serve the terms consecutively, Alamo could receive 175 years in a federal prison.
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When Tony Alamo was arrested last year, his enforcer — John Erwin Kolbeck — fled and hasn’t been seen since.

The television show America’s Most Wanted is in Fort Smith, Arkansas to take the story to a national level in hopes of finding him. [video]
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The constitutionally guaranteed right to religious freedom didn’t give Tony Alamo the right to order beatings, force fasts and falsely imprison, according to a federal judge’s ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by two men who claim to have been beaten as children at Alamo’s bidding.

“The principle of religious liberty does not give one the liberty to physically attack others; when a threat to society’s or another individual’s safety appears, the power of the state to prevent or punish is obvious,” said a decision from U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes.
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State child-welfare officials say a baby born to followers of convicted evangelist Tony Alamo is at substantial risk of injury.

An affidavit filed last week in Miller County Circuit Court by a caseworker with the state Department of Human Services said the 3-month-old boy is in danger of abuse.

The affidavit also says a judge in January ruled that the Alamo ministry was an unfit environment for the boy’s four siblings.
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Two members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries were released from jail Monday after spending more than seven months behind bars for refusing to reveal the whereabouts of their children.

Many children of Alamo followers have been taking into protective custody.
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Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who became an outfitter of the stars and fought the federal government over claims he underpaid followers for church work, was convicted Friday of taking five girls across state lines for sex.

Alamo has blamed the Vatican for his legal troubles, which include a four-year prison term for tax evasion in the 1990s.
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Cult leader Tony Alamo is accused of taking five young girls across state lines for sex between 1994 and 1995 after “marrying” them.

The jury began deliberating early Thursday at Texarkana federal courthouse, a day after listening to prosecutors and defense attorneys offer their final portrayals of Alamo.
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Prosecutors wrapped up their case Tuesday after playing recordings of phone conversations Alamo had from jail.

In one, Alamo tells a girl she has to clean up a mess she made or leave his compound. In another, women and girls giggle as he discusses how the charges against him might differ had his alleged crimes occurred in Texas or Arkansas.
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A woman who said evangelist Tony Alamo “married” her at age 8 told federal jurors Thursday that he sexually assaulted her repeatedly until she escaped his compound in late 2006.

Another woman who noted in her Bible the first time she had sex with evangelist Tony Alamo — at age 14 — told jurors in his sex-crimes trial Thursday that she was married to the flamboyant pastor that year in a prison visiting room
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Prosecutors at evangelist Tony Alamo’s trial will not be able to elicit testimony about Alamo’s beliefs that the Bible does not prohibit polygamy and that girls are ready to be married when they begin menstruating, a judge said Monday.

The word ‘cult’ may also not be used in relation to the preacher’s cult…
» Full Story

A jury of 9 men and 3 women will decide the fate of jailed minister Tony Alamo.

Evangelist Tony Alamo preyed on his loyal followers’ young daughters, once taking a girl as young as 8 as his bride and repeatedly sexually assaulting her, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
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An attorney said Wednesday that he plans to publish a notice in a newspaper as early as next week giving the man accused of being Tony Alamo’s “enforcer” 30 days to respond to a lawsuit or risk having a judgment entered against him.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes gave Carter permission to notify Kolbeck of the lawsuit by publishing a notice [in] the Texarkana Gazette.
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A federal judge has delayed the trial for jailed evangelist Tony Alamo until July.

This marks the third time the trial date has been moved.

The controversial preacher was arrested in September 2008 on charges that he transported minors across state lines for sex. Considered a flight risk, Alamo has been denied bail.
» Full Story

Identities of children seized from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and details of closed-door custody hearings will be sealed from public view in a federal lawsuit brought by the jailed evangelist’s church, a judge has ruled.

Also, federal prosecutors intend to use evidence gathered during the investigation of other crimes allegedly committed by jailed evangelist Tony Alamo at his upcoming trial.
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Evangelist Tony Alamo will remain jailed until his May trial on charges he took young girls across state lines for sex, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Last October another judge also denied bail in order to “assure the safety of the community” and to make sure Alamo does not flee.
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A judge’s ruling Wednesday gives two teenagers an extra three months to find the man they say beat them while they were members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and serve him with a copy of their lawsuit.

But the teenagers’ attorney, W. David Carter of Texarkana, Texas, said he doesn’t expect to wait that long to move forward with the lawsuit, which seeks damages against the ministry’s leader, Tony Alamo, and John Kolbeck, whom authorities have identified as Alamo’s “enforcer.”
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Evangelist Tony Alamo has hired Danny Davis, the same lawyer who in 1991 represented him in a child abuse case that never went to trial.

Alamo’s choice of Davis means the evangelist likely wants to attack the credibility of witnesses who will claim the evangelist took young girls across the state lines for sex.

Davis said Thursday that his client’s poor eyesight and diminishing physique would have made it impossible for him to have had sex with underage girls, as federal prosecutors claim.
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The number of jailed Tony Alamo Christian Ministries followers rose last week when authorities in California jailed a man on a 20-year-old warrant alleging child abuse.

He, Alamo and four other men were charged in connection with the January 1988 beating of Justin Miller.

Although the criminal charges against Alamo were eventually dropped, a federal judge in the Western District of Arkansas awarded the boy and his family more than a $1 million for their suffering.
» Full Story

Citing a history of underage marriages and beatings for violations of church rules, a judge ruled Wednesday that the parents of 21 children removed from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries must move off church property and find jobs outside the ministry if they hope to regain custody of their children.

Tony Alamo, the ministry’s 74-year-old leader, is in jail awaiting a May 18 trial on charges that he transported five underage girls across state lines for sex.
» Full Story

A judge on Tuesday upheld the removal of 18 children from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, saying the children were endangered by the ministry’s history of punishing misbehavior with beatings and of allowing underage marriages.

Judge Joe Griffin also ordered a member of the ministry jailed for contempt after she refused to answer questions about images of ministry children that were posted on a Web site.
» Full Story

Another member of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was found in contempt of court and ordered jailed Thursday after she refused to say where three of her children are.

Meanwhile, a former ministry member said a man arrested this week on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender has ties to the church dating back to the 1980s.
» Full Story

A Tony Alamo follower was found in contempt of court, arrested and jailed during custody proceedings Tuesday for failing to reveal the whereabouts of two of his children.

One of the man’s children was among 20 seized in November after circuit judges in Miller and Sebastian counties issued removal orders naming more than 125 children of Tony Alamo followers.
» Full Story

The order was prompted after tapes of interviews with six girls removed from ministry properties in Fouke, Ark., were placed on the Internet, Griffin said. The footage was filmed at the Texarkana Children’s Advocacy Center the day after their September removal.

Alamo is currently facing a 10-count indictment in the Western District of Arkansas. The 74-year-old is being held in a jail in downtown Texarkana and is scheduled for trial in May
» Full Story

A federal judge on Thursday delayed the trial of jailed evangelist Tony Alamo on charges he took young girls across state lines for sex.

Another judge sentenced a former Alamo associate to house arrest; and yet another judge ordered two Alamo followers to get back a video of their daughter’s interview with a state child welfare official, even though the footage is on the Internet and a copy was mailed to the White House,
» Full Story

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Most Read about Tony Alamo

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1. Is He a Prophet, Promoter or Profiteer?
2. Tony Alamo: Storied evangelist still preaching
3. Tony Alamo Ministries is listed as a hate group by SPLC
4. Evangelist Tony Alamo compound raided in child abuse investigation
5. Tony Alamo ministry resurrected
6. Body of Cult Leader's Wife Stolen From Mausoleum
7. Tony Alamo denied bail after judge hears of beatings, sex with girls
8. Cult Leader Loses Ruling Over Dead Wife's Body
9. Evangelist Tony Alamo arrested in child sex probe
10. 6 children in Arkansas custody after raid on compound

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