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Tony Alamo

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A video of a 16-year-old girl speaking with a forensic interviewer the day after she was removed from Tony Alamo’s residence in Fouke, Ark., has been placed on the Internet.

Filmed at the Child Advocacy Center in Texarkana, the video was intended only for use by law enforcement, the courts and child welfare officials. The Arkansas Department of Human Services filed a motion late Wednesday afternoon to have the hosting wesbite remove the video and related material.
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Embattled evangelist Tony Alamo’s lawyer has asked that “immaterial, impertinent or scandalous” language be removed from a civil lawsuit targeting Alamo in federal court.

The language was included in the suit only in an attempt “to stigmatize the defendant,” Alamo lawyer John Wesley Hall of Little Rock said in a filing last week.
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A day after hearing testimony that a 17-year-old boy had been beaten with a wooden paddle by a member of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, a judge ordered the teenager to stay in foster care for 10 more days until he turns 18.

The teenager and infants are among 36 children who have been placed in foster care amid an investigation into physical and sexual abuse within the ministry.
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Earlier, at the Juvenile Court Center in Texarkana, the Avilas waived their right to an initial hearing on allegations concerning four of their other sons, who range in age from 8 to 14. A hearing on the custody status of those children was set for Jan. 14.

The five brothers are among 36 children affiliated with the Alamo ministry who were taken into protective custody amid allegations that children in the ministry have been physically and sexually abused.
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A lawyer says four children involved in the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries will remain in state custody after officials seized them last week.

To date 36 children whose parents are involved in Alamo’s organization have been taken into protective custory.

Alamo, 74, remains held without bond on charges that he violated the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for “prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
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The seizure Friday of four young brothers associated with Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in Arkansas brought to 36 the number of children taken into custody by state child-welfare authorities.

Alamo, 74, remains held without bond on charges that he violated the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for “prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
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The children are on a list of more than 120 youths affiliated with Alamo Ministries that authorities are trying to find, Munsell said. The FBI picked up the six last week in Valparaiso, Ind., after agents said they received information that the children were taken from Alamo-controlled homes in Fort Smith.

Also: One former follower wanted his family out of the church because he saw a 13-year-old girl marry a 40-year old man in Alamo’s church and feared the same could happen to his daughters.
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Child welfare officials on Wednesday visited a Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound just outside of Los Angeles, officials said.

Louise Grasmehr, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, told The Associated Press that officials likely went to the compound in Santa Clarita at the request of federal agents.

Elsewhere six more children were taken into protective custody.
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An indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses evangelist Tony Alamo of eight more counts of transporting underage girls across state lines for sexual purposes over the past 14 years, including at least one violation that occurred while Alamo was completing a prison sentence at a halfway house in Texarkana.

The original indictment against the 74-year-old leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, a multistate ministry with headquarters in southwest Arkansas, accused him of transporting a girl across state lines in 2004 and 2005.
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A beating administered by evangelist Tony Alamo and the man described as his “enforcer,” John Kolbeck, at Alamo’s religious compound in Fouke last year caused “serious and permanent injury” to a teenager’s left hand and wrist, according to a lawsuit filed by the teenager and another former church member.

Eighteen-year-old Spencer Ondirsek said in the lawsuit that Alamo struck him three times during the beating. At one point, he said, Alamo taunted him, saying, “You think I like doing this? I love doing this !” The lawsuit was filed by Ondirsek and Seth Calagna, who is also 18, on Tuesday afternoon in U. S. District Court in Texarkana. Both teens left the church this year and now live in the Spokane, Wash., area.
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Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo faces eight new federal charges after his arrest for allegedly taking children across state lines for sex, his lawyer said Tuesday.

John Wesley Hall Jr. said the new charges are similar to those Alamo already faces — violations of the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for “prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
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Testifying at a hearing on the custody status of four girls taken from his religious compound in Fouke, evangelist Tony Alamo admitted to sharing a house with multiple women, but he contended he was only married to one at a time.

On the stand, Alamo was asked about a tract he had written in 1993 noting that several prominent figures in the Bible had multiple wives. The evangelist reiterated his position that the Bible does not condemn polygamy, but he denied having multiple wives.
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An Arkansas judge says 20 children removed from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound by child welfare officials will temporarily remain in state custody.

Hearings continue on whether six other girls removed from the compound in September will remain in state custody. [video] [Updated]
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A judge said Saturday that he would be open to a plan that would protect two teenage girls taken from Tony Alamo’s religious compound while allowing their parents to stay in the ministry, but the parents haven’t proposed such a plan.

In a hearing that concluded Friday evening, Miller County Circuit Judge Jim Hudson ruled that the girls can eventually be reunited with their parents if the parents agree to move off property controlled by Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and to establish financial independence from the church.
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Two girls taken from Tony Alamo’s religious compound in southwest Arkansas can eventually be reunited with their parents if the parents sever some of their ties with the church, a judge ruled Friday.

Meanwhile, two days after their children were taken from them in a sweep of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries properties, church members opened the church to reporters, denying that they had ever abused their children and saying the government is trying to destroy their church.
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Authorities said dozens of children missing from Tony Alamo ministries in Fouke and Fort Smith, Ark., listed on a court order may be out of the reach of child welfare agencies if they’ve been taken across state lines.

Not a single child was found on Alamo properties in Fort Smith after officials with DHS and members of the Arkansas State Police searched more than a dozen sites Tuesday.

The orders authorizing removal listed many more children than the 20 taken Tuesday.
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Arkansas authorities have taken into protective custody 21 children associated with the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries based on allegations of neglect and physical abuse.

Julie Munsell of DHS says, “We had been gathering information, gathering evidence over the last several weeks, but was actually sped up by the reported movement of families and children in the area. So we went ahead and decided to execute the court order that we had received for the removal of the children.” [video]
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At a hearing on the custody status of two girls removed from Tony Alamo’s religious compound in southwest Arkansas, a 14-yearold girl testified that Alamo had touched her inappropriately, and an 18-year-old man described beatings at the hands of another church member.

e girls, along with four others, were removed from the compound in Fouke after a Sept. 20 raid by federal and state authorities investigating allegations that children at the compound had been physically and sexually abused.
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Six members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries have been arrested for distributing handbills on vehicles in Texarkana, Texas.

All six members were charged with violating a city ordinance against distributing handbills on unattended vehicles.

The handbills spread the church’s conspiracy theories regarding the prosecution of its leader, Tony Alamo.
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A federal judge has moved a trial for jailed evangelist Tony Alamo to Feb. 2.

In court papers filed Tuesday, attorneys for Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Lazar Hoffman, said they needed more time to prepare. Prosecutors filed a motion saying they did not object to the request.
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At a federal detention hearing Wednesday for Tony Alamo, several witnesses said John Erwin Kolbeck beat Alamo’s followers for even minor infractions like playing with a spray bottle. John Wesley Hall Jr., a Little Rock lawyer representing Alamo, declined to comment about the

Former followers said Alamo sometimes introduced Kolbeck by mimicking Jack Nicholson’s menacing “Here’s Johnny!” from “The Shining.”
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After listening to testimony that Tony Alamo has ordered beatings, taken young girls as wives and controls what an FBI agent described as a “vast,” tightly controlled organization, a federal judge Wednesday ordered the evangelist held without bail pending his trial on sex charges, saying he wanted to “assure the safety of the community” and make sure Alamo doesn’t flee.
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Over the objections of prosecutors, a federal judge on Tuesday said Tony Alamo should have immediate access to documents related to the search of Alamo’s religious compound in southwest Arkansas.

The Sept. 20 search in Fouke involved more than 100 federal and state police officers and child protective services caseworkers. It resulted in the removal of six girls, ages 10 to 17, who authorities say were sexually or physically abused and who are now in foster care. Alamo, 74, was arrested in Arizona five days later on charges that he transported a minor across state lines for illegal sexual activity.
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Evangelist Tony Alamo told a judge on Friday that he understood that he could get life in prison if convicted of taking a minor across state lines for sex, and he’ll argue next week that he should be released from custody pending trial.

Alamo is charged with two felony counts: a violation of the Mann Act — which prohibits children from being brought across state lines for sex — and that he aided and abetted a Mann Act violation.
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Bernie LaZar Hoffman, commonly known as Tony Alamo, will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant Friday for arraignment in Texarkana, Ark., said Bryant’s staff.

Alamo is accused of bringing minors across state lines for sex.
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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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