Imprisoned cult leader Tony Alamo and his wife will have to reveal where the money they use to pay their lawyers comes from.

Alamo was sentenced in November, 2009, to 175 years in prison on charges that included taking girls as young as 9 years old across state lines to become his "brides."

As part of his sentence, Alamo was also fined $250,000 and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution to each of his accusers.

Two other former members of his 'ministry,' Seth Calagna and Spencer Ondirsek, successfully sued Alamo for ordering his enforcer, John Erwin Kolbeck, to beat them.
[caption id="attachment_27438" align="alignleft" width="425"] In November, 2009, cult leader Tony Alamo was sentenced to 175 years in prison[/caption]
But the cult leader, who appears to continue being in control of his Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, has thus far been able to avoid paying up.

Federal prosecutors and attorneys are therefore seeking the seizure of some of Alamo's properties in order to help satisfy the judgements.

But Alamo and his followers are playing games, claiming that the properties are owned collectively by church members, and not by Alamo.

Earlier this year U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant ruled that Tony Alamo is the true owner of the properties, even though several of them were placed in the names of ministry members.

Last month Bryant threw out most claims of ownership in the properties by Alamo's followers.

The Magistrate has now ruled that arrangements for attorney fees are not protected by the attorney-client privilege and must be revealed.

Hate group and Cult

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a human rights organization that tracks hate groups and their activities, lists Alamo's organization as a hate group due to its ongoing hate campaigns against Catholics.

Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, is widely considered to be a cult both sociologically and theologically.[ref]Note the difference between theological and sociological definitions of the term 'cult.'[/ref]

Theologically it is a cult of Christianity due to its many un-biblical teachings and practices. As such it is not representative of, nor part of the Christian church.

Sociologically, the organization is a cult that has engaged in violence and other illegal acts against its followers.

Full story: Cult leader Tony Alamo must reveal financial sources

A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by members of imprisoned evangelist Tony Alamo's Christian Ministries, claiming an Arkansas agency infringed upon their religious rights in seizing children from their compound in 2008.

Arkansas News reports

The 8th U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis said U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes was right to dismiss the suit, which alleged violations of the ministry's constitutional rights, because the suit would have interfered with state proceedings that at the time were still ongoing.

At least 36 children were removed from the ministry's compound in Fouke and placed in foster care. Officials with the state Department of Human Services said the children were the victims of physical and sexual abuse, including forced marriages between underage children and adults.

Alamo was sentenced in November 2009 to 175 years in prison on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex.

The ministry and two church members, Albert Ralph Krantz and Gregory Scott Seago, filed a lawsuit alleging that DHS officials violated their constitutional rights, including their First Amendment right to freedom of religious expression and their Fourth Amendment right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

Barnes dismissed the suit in February 2010. The ministry, but not the individual plaintiffs, filed an appeal, and on Wednesday a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit said it agreed with Barnes' ruling.

The appeals court said the U.S. Supreme Court has established, in its 1971 ruling in Younger v. Harris, that federal courts must abstain from considering any civil claims brought by plaintiffs who are being prosecuted at the state level for matters related to their claims.

Research resources on Tony Alamo Christian Ministries
Tony Alamo News

Full story: Appeals court upholds dismissal of Alamo Ministries civil suit

The lawyer for an imprisoned evangelist convicted of taking young girls across state lines for sex says his client was hospitalized for about two weeks but has since been released.

The Texarkana Gazette says

Tony Alamo's waning health was mentioned Friday at a pretrial hearing in a civil lawsuit filed by former members of his controversial ministry.

The Associated Press writes that

The hearing was related to a civil lawsuit by six women who say Alamo took them as child "brides" and a seventh woman who says she was being groomed as his bride before she escaped his ministry in Fouke.

Tony Alamo is serving a 175-year sentence in federal prison for taking little girls as young as 9 across state lines to have sex with them.

Last September a federal magistrate upheld a $66 million judgment against Alamo for abuse suffered by two boys while they were being reared in his ministry.

Full story: Imprisoned evangelist Tony Alamo in poor health

A federal judge has denied defense requests to halt proceedings in a civil lawsuit filed by former wives of Tony Alamo.

The Texarkana Gazette, quoted at TonyAlamoNews.com, says

The suit was filed in August 2010 by six women who testified against him at his July 2009 criminal trial. Alamo was convicted of bringing five women he wed as children across state lines for sex. Later that year, Alamo was sentenced to 175 years in federal prison. He has been ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution to each of the five women.

The original petition also included a woman who testified she escaped from Alamo's house while being groomed to be a wife. The civil suit was later amended to add a former wife who left the ministry and Alamo after Alamo's conviction and after the suit was filed. [...]

Lawyers representing individuals and businesses accused of knowing about and allowing Alamo to sexually abuse young girls asked U.S. District Judge Paul K. Holmes to stay the case amid concerns the defendants are targets of an active criminal investigation by the government.

Cited as evidence of such an investigation in a motion filed by Alamo's attorney, John Wesley Hall of Little Rock, is an Oct. 11 visit to Alamo Ministry properties in Fouke, Ark., by a U.S. Attorney's Office financial investigator.

"A representative of the USAO stated that the investigator was there for restitutionary purposes, but defendants theorize that the investigator may, in fact, have been there to collect information which could be used to prosecute others for what happened on those properties," Holmes' order states.

Hall's motion also points to the government's refusal to provide certain documents requested by defendants as support for the pending criminal investigation theory.

In his analysis of the request, Holmes notes the suit alleges violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The TVPRA allows the government to intervene and request a stay of a civil suit in a case it plans to prosecute criminally, Holmes' order states.

But Holmes ruled that the law does not permit civil defendants to request a halt to proceedings in cases it speculates may be the subject of a criminal investigation.

"If such evidence were able to subject a civil case to an automatic stay, victims bringing actions under the TVPRA could often be denied justice, having their trial delayed indefinitely by a civil defendant who merely theorizes that an investigation might possibly be ongoing. Such an application of the statute would be nonsensical. €¦" Holmes wrote. [...]

The case is scheduled for trial next year.

Tony Alamo is serving a 175-year sentence in federal prison for taking little girls as young as 9 across state lines to have sex with them.

Last September a federal magistrate upheld a $66 million judgment against Alamo for abuse suffered by two boys when they were being reared in his ministry.

Full story: Judge denies Tony Alamo attorney’s request to halt civil lawsuit

The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from followers of evangelist Tony Alamo who had their children taken away when they wouldn't agree not to expose them to the controversial ministry.

The Associated Press reports

Prosecutors won sexual abuse convictions against Alamo in 2009. Social workers feared the children might someday be abused, and told the parents to break their financial dependence on Alamo's ministry. The parents refused.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the taking of the children was not a barrier to the parents' constitutional rights to practice religion.

Cult leader Tony Alamo is serving a 175-year prison sentence for taking young girls across state lines for sex.

To read more about the case, Myers v. Arkansas Department of Social Services 11-126, see TonyAlamoNews.com
Arkansas Supreme Court upholds decision to strip followers of Tony Alamo cult of parental rights
Research resources on Tony Alamo Christian Ministries

Full story: Supreme Court won’t hear appeal from Tony Alamo followers who had children taken away

A federal magistrate has upheld a $66 million judgment against jailed evangelist Tony Alamo for abuse suffered by two boys when they were being reared in his ministry.

Lynn LaRowe reports in the Texarkana Gazette that

A federal judge described Tony Alamo's behavior as "highly reprehensible" in an order handed down Tuesday denying Alamo's bid for reduction of a $66 million civil judgment.

"We were optimistic that Judge (Barry) Bryant would not reduce the jury's verdict. The facts in this case were compelling. And we are very pleased that the court concluded that the jury carefully considered the evidence and followed the court's instructions in reaching its verdict," said Texarkana defense attorney David Carter, who represented the plaintiffs. "This ruling is just another step in securing some justice for these young men."

A jury awarded Seth Calagna and Spencer Ondrisek, former members raised in the controversial Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, $3 million apiece in actual damages and $30 million apiece in punitive damages after a trial in June.

Alamo's defense attorney, John Wesley Hall Jr. of Little Rock, complained in an August motion that the award for actual damages was motivated by "passion and prejudice" and that the punitive award is unconstitutional, unreasonable and unlawful. Hall argued the judgment should "shock the conscience of the court," because the men were simply paddled and had the option of leaving the church if they chose.

"They knew their options, and they knew what they were getting into," Hall's motion said.

But in his order Tuesday, Bryant notes that evidence at trial showed the men were "for the first 18 years of their lives subjected to continual verbal and physical abuse at the direction of (Alamo)," subjected to repeated and ritualistic beatings, forced to labor unpaid, denied food, denied education and isolated from the outside world.

In his response to Hall's motion, Carter argued that the men suffered so much while in the ministry that each contemplated suicide and questioned the existence of God.

"The jury in this case carefully considered the evidence and followed this court's instructions," Bryant's order states. [...]

After the release of Bryant's opinion Tuesday afternoon, Hall filed notice that he intends to appeal the decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

John Erwin Kolbeck, the man who allegedly beat the boys at Alamo's orders, died in January this year of a heart attack while on the run from law enforcement.

Evangelist Tony Alamo is serving a 175-year prison sentence for taking young girls across state lines for sex.

Theologically Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is a cult of Christianity. Sociologically the group has cult-like characteristics as well.

Full story: $66M verdict in suit against jailed cult leader Tony Alamo upheld

Longtime evangelist Tony Alamo owes millions of dollars in court-ordered restitution for abusing some of his former followers, triggering a nationwide hunt for assets still controlled by the Arkansas pastor.

The cult leader is currently serving a 175-year sentence for taking young girls across state lines for sex.

The Wall Street Journal says Alamo

enlisted members of his church to help run a business empire that over the years has included a trucking company, a restaurant, a hog farm and a designer clothing line that made rhinestone-studded denim jackets for Hollywood celebrities.

Since starting his street ministry in Los Angeles during the 1960s, Mr. Alamo faced repeated allegations by former followers, some backed by court convictions, that he abused his flock—sexually molesting girls, ordering beatings and forcing adults and children alike to work long hours for little or no pay.

Former followers have won millions in court judgments, but government and private investigators say Mr. Alamo kept few assets in his name, making it difficult to collect.

Mr. Alamo preached polygamy and declared that girls could marry as soon as they reached puberty. He acknowledged disciplining followers with corporal punishment and forced fasting, but said all his views were grounded in the Bible. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

His theology placed him well outside mainstream Christianity and included virulently anti-Catholic views.

When Alamo was sentenced for taking girls as young as eight years old as his "spiritual wives," U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes in Texarkana, Ark., also ordered Mr. Alamo to pay five of the girls—now young women—restitution of $500,000 each.

The Wall Street Journal says the five women

have filed a civil case against Mr. Alamo, seeking additional damages. Their case is scheduled for trial next year. [...]

Mr. Alamo lost an appeal of his criminal conviction and is incarcerated at a federal prison in Indiana. He has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In January, he also wrote President Barack Obama to ask for a pardon on the grounds that he has a secret plan to bring peace to the Middle East.

Full story: Ex-Followers Pursue Cult Leader Tony Alamo’s Assets

Two former members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries have been awarded $33 million each after they sued Alamo for ordering them to be beaten.

The two men testified that evangelist Tony Alamo ordered his enforcer, John Kolbek, to beat them.

In October 2009 they were each were awarded $1.5 million from Kolbek after he failed to respond to their lawsuit.

Kolbeck died in January this year of a heart attack while on the run from law enforcement.

The Associated Press reports:

A jury in federal court in Texarkana deliberated for a few hours Thursday before finding Alamo liable for civil damages.

Seth Calagna and Spencer Ondirsek were awarded $30 million each in punitive damages, plus another $3 million each to compensate them for past injuries.

Cult leader Tony Alamo is serving a 175-year prison sentence for taking young girls across state lines for sex.

He was not present at the trial because it would cost too much to bring him from federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Theologically Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is a cult of Christianity. Sociologically the group has cult-like characteristics as well.

Full story: 2 former members of Tony Alamo cult awarded $33 million each in civil suit

Evangelist Tony Alamo, who is serving a 175-year sentence in federal prison for taking young girls across state lines for sex, faces a civil trial starting Tuesday that he ordered the beating of two of his former ministry members.

The Associated Press reports:

In a federal lawsuit filed in 2008 by W. David Carter of Texarkana, Tex., the two young men — Seth Calagna and Spencer Ondirsek — allege that Alamo ordered another man, John Kolbek, to beat them.

Calagna and Ondirsek each were awarded $1.5 million from Kolbek after he failed to respond to their lawsuit. Kolbek died in January.

They're now seeking damages in the case against Alamo, who is not likely to appear in court in Texarkana, Ark. because it would cost too much to bring him from federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. [...]

The suit seeks damages in excess of $75,000 because the young men "have sustained damages in the form of physical pain and suffering, emotional distress and scarring/disfigurement," Carter wrote in the complaint.

Full story: Civil trial to begin for evangelist convicted for taking girls across state lines for sex

The Arkansas Supreme Court says a judge was right to terminate the parental rights of seven people who saw their 16 children seized from the compound of evangelist Tony Alamo in 2008, the Associated Press reports.

The Arkansas News Bureau says:

State human services officials removed the 16 minor children from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound in Fouke in 2008. The state Court of Appeals in 2009 upheld their removal.

Miller County Circuit Judge Joe Griffin in 2009 ruled in five separate cases that the 16 children had been neglected and terminated their parents' parental rights.

The judge concluded that, among other things, the children faced danger of beatings and forced fasts ordered by the evangelist who was convicted in 2009 of transporting underage girls across state lines for sex and sentenced to 175 years in prison.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette explains:

The Supreme Court found that requiring the parents to move off church property and findemployment outside the ministry before regaining custody of their children was "neutral" and only "incidentally" affected the parents' freedom to practice their religion.

"The target of the requirements was not any religious activity or exercise; instead, the goal was to provide a safe environment for her children apart from the TACM compound, which the court found was, and continued to be, an unsafe environment for the children of its members," wrote Justice Jim Gunter for the unanimous court in the case of Myers v. Arkansas Department of Human Services. [...]

The parents also claimed that the Miller County Circuit Court was wrong to admit into evidence taped conversations between Tony Alamo and some ministry members as evidence of Alamo's continued control of the ministry after he had been sentenced to prison for 10 counts of taking underage girls across state lines for sex.

They also claimed that the circuit court erred in terminating their parental rights.

But the Supreme Court upheld the circuit court on all three points. [...]

The status of children removed from the compound in Fouke, about 15 miles south of Texarkana, has been the subject of court cases since 2008. At least 36 children were placed into foster care after the raid, including others belonging to some of the same parents involved in Thursday's rulings. [...]

At the Supreme Court, the cases are 10-694, 10-692, 10-691, 10-696, and 10-693; Miriam Krantz and Albert Krantz v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, Bethany Myers v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, Carlos Parrish and Sophia Parrish v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, Alphonzo Reid v. Arkansas Department of Human Services; Greg Seago v. Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Last January an alleged enforcer for cult leader Tony Alamo died of a heart attack while on the run from law enforcement.

While he was still on the run a judge in October 2009 ruled that John Kolbeck was to pay $3 million in restitution to two boys he's believed to have savagely beaten on Tony Alamo's behalf.

Cult experts view Alamo Christian Ministries as a cult, both sociologically and theologically.

On the Website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which characterizes Alamo Ministries as a hate group, an article called "The Ravening Wolf" outlines some of Alamo's beliefs that got him on their watchlist.

Full story: Court upholds decision to strip followers of Tony Alamo cult of parental rights