Posted on 07/24/2009 12:21:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo on Friday of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex, according to the court in the Western District in Arkansas.
Authorities in September charged Alamo, the 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas.
Jurors reached the verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Between March 1994 and October 2005, Alamo transported five girls younger than 18 across state lines for sex, according to the indictment.
The criminal complaint included accounts from three of the girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was filed last year and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them.
Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, had denied all wrongdoing. In a phone interview last year with CNN, he called the accusations a hoax.
"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will."
Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ.
"Why were they after Jesus," he asked. "It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me."
Alamo also has compounds in Oklahoma and New Jersey.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is anti-Catholic and a cult.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Holy crap! I had pamphlets from this guy’s ministries left on my wife’s car’s windshield this past weekend when she, my daughter, and I came out of the mall. Never heard of him before.
This man has pamphlets distributed everywhere in the USA. I live in New York City and have his pamphlets in my mailbox.
He claims to have a huge network in the USA.
Tony Alamo another false teacher & prophet burned down.
Just wondering what you think of this case?
Didn’t happen in Texas, and wasn’t a relation to LDS.
He’s as much a *evangelist* as Phelps is a *Baptist*.
He’s a pedophile plain and simple.
I wish the media would quit giving him the appearance of legitimacy by calling him that.
But I guess they won’t let anything stand in their way of hacking away at the Christian foundation of this culture and country.
Does anyone ask the media people why every time a "religious" leader or group runs afoul of the authorites, that their home becomes a compound? The Branch Davidians lived in a compound, the polygamist sects live in compounds, Ruby Ridge was a compound. I think Al Gore lives in a compound, but they don't call it that. They have a lexicon that they use, and it's all aimed at marginalizing religious people.
For my part, I do not read any daily paper or weekly news magazine, and I do not watch any of the alphabet networks. I don't want to give them my money.
I”ll have to do more research into his “church”, but I do not support violating the Mann act. What the issue in Texas was about, was bogus “evidence”, “underage” girls who turned out not to be underage, persecuting polygamists, and kidnapping women and children on a hunch. I do not support forced marriage, or rape, or child abuse. I do support everyone being afforded the same constitutional rights. I do support the godlike autonomy of CPS being stopped.
I think these pervs use religion as a tool to have sex with minors. I find it disgusting. I live in NJ & never heard of this guy until recently. I hope I don’t get any pamphlets or these kooks don’t come to my door. I have zero tolerance for anybody knocking on my door about religion or asking for money.
...never heard of him before...
He is a real bad apple and has been around for years. At one time he carried around the body of wife, Susan, who was to be brought back from dead. He was unsuccessful.
Unfortunately it’s the People’s Republic of New Jersey. I hope to be able to move us out of here within the next year or two.
It seems he graduated from necrophilia to pedophilia.
#14 ...nechrophillia to pedophillia...
Now thats funny!
I actually used to see this creep on the Sunset Strip back in the 1970s trying to lure little hippie girls to his church bus so he could save them. He later claimed that the Pope and Ronald Reagan were Devils!
Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, had denied all wrongdoing. In a phone interview last year with CNN, he called the accusations a hoax.
"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will."
Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ.
"Why were they after Jesus," he asked. "It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me."
That said I have no use for him, his religion or it's teachings and don't mind that the Gov't raided his compound and brought him to criminal justice. Now I think the parents of those children need to be examined/look at with scrutiny for possible criminal charges and whether they are fit to parent other children if they have any.
From an AP article:
Snip
Parents' role in Alamo case is a tricky question
By ANDREW DeMILLO and JON GAMBRELL (AP) – 13 hours ago
TEXARKANA, Ark. — One by one, the women told the court a similar story. They were "married" to evangelist Tony Alamo as children or teens, pushed into the unions with the blessings of parents who believed it was the highest honor before God.
Their parents had been taught that Alamo was infallible, and with him the girls would have access to amenities like television, ponies, a swimming pool and a carousel — luxuries otherwise unattainable in their tightly controlled lives. But instead of spiritual happiness, the women allege Alamo preyed on them for sex at ages as young as 9 as their parents willingly allowed it or ignored the signs of abuse.
None of their parents have been charged, despite the litany of abuse the women detailed under oath as Alamo faces charges of taking them across state lines for sex when they were underage. Experts say prosecutors would encounter several challenges in accusing the parents of abuse or neglect, most notably in determining how much responsibility they had. [end snip]
“Just wondering what you think of this case?”
He was found guilty - due process. Hang him!
My gripe with what happened to the FLDS is that they were deprived of Constitutional rights and due process. Still no trials or convictions while the state tries to cover its screw-ups. Meanwhile over 400 children were abused by the state and will suffer emotional distress for the rest of their lives. And some adult women who looked young were held against their will for two months!
Sigh...still posting your lies, Saundra.
Eldorado, Tex. —A Texas judge has set the first criminal trials for members of a polygamous sect for October.
Raymond M. Jessop and Allen Keate are slated for jury trials beginning Oct. 26 on sexual assault charges. Trials for eight other men indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury will be set one per month, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther decided Monday.
The grand jury indicted 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints last year on charges related to underage marriages.
With the exception of FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs, the men charged with felonies attended the hearing at the Schleicher County Courthouse.
The case involving physician Lloyd H. Barlow, charged with misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse, has been moved to Tom Green County.
The judge also set May 13 to hear arguments for throwing out evidence seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch, which authorities raided in April after receiving a call alleging abuse. The call is now believed to have been a hoax.
The sect argues that false information was used in affidavits to get search warrants to enter the ranch and that law-enforcement officers knew before the raid that the individuals named in the warrants were not on the property.
Eric Nichols, lead prosecutor with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, said the hearing will include all of the defendants except Jeffs. The sect’s attorneys also agreed to suspend efforts to suppress use of that evidence in Jeffs’ Arizona trial until after the May hearing.
In the meantime, defense and state attorneys will come up with a way to sift through 12 terabytes of data taken from the ranch.
- Source: Trials for men from polygamous sect set for October, Brooke Adams, The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah, USA), Jan. 12, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog
It doesn't suit your pro-polygamy agenda to acknowledge that the wheels of justice don't perform to your personal timetable.
Texas FLDS raid: Defense attorney alleges search too broad, evidence tainted
-SNIP-
The brief argues that based on testimony presented during a four-day court hearing in May, all evidence seized during the investigation at the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch should be suppressed in upcoming criminal trial of Jessop. Attorneys expect to make the same argument for 9 other FLDS defendants.
The motion does not include cases of two other men: Lloyd H. Barlow, a physician charged with misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse; and Warren S. Jeffs, the convicted prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who faces multiple felony charges based on allegations of spiritual marriages to underage girls.
There is no indication when 51st District Judge Barbara Walther will rule on the suppression motion; she also must rule on whether the men have standing, and thus an expectation of privacy, to fight the seizure.
A pretrial hearing set for the 10 men on July 23 and the first criminal trials are scheduled for October. They face a total of 19 criminal counts on charges ranging from bigamy, sexual assault, tampering with evidence to conducting a prohibited ceremony.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.