Tycoon Born Again Evangelist Tony Alamo got 175 years for his sexual abuse cases and then just recently the court awarded more than half billion dollars to the victims whom he abused as children. The Born Again group are now selling properties to meet the court’s order.
Tony Alamo victims awarded $525 million; L.A. properties may be sold
Seven women who alleged they were sexually abused as children by former Christian ministry tycoon Tony Alamo were awarded $525 million by an Arkansas judge this week after an Alamo church failed to respond to a lawsuit.
Collecting the largest judgment in Arkansas history, according to one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, will likely require some help from a Los Angeles court, though. Texas attorney David Carter said he would “soon” file paperwork asking that a court here sell at least two Santa Clarita Valley properties connected to Alamo’s operation.
“We’re optimistic we can get a sale done this calendar year,” Carter told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re obviously satisfied with the court’s damages finding, but at the same time there’s no amount of money that will wash away the damage inflicted upon these women.”
Alamo’s attorney, John Rogers, said he wasn’t involved in the Arkansas lawsuit. Patrick Kilgore, an attorney for church members, didn’t respond to a request for comment. A message was left with an answering service for Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.
SOURCE:
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/01/nation/la-na-nn-tony-alamo-arkansas-victims-20140228
Evangelist Tony Alamo gets 175 years in jail for sex crimes
Evangelist Tony Alamo was sentenced Friday to 175 years in prison for taking underage girls across state lines for sex, effectively punishing him for the rest of his life for molesting children he took as “brides” in his ministry.
During Friday’s hearing, some of Alamo’s victims testified about how their families were destroyed while the evangelist took over their lives.
Alamo, 75, had been convicted in July on a 10-count federal indictment. U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes said Alamo used his status as father figure and pastor and threatened and threatened the girls with “the loss of their salvation.”
“Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher a greater judge than me, may he have mercy on your soul,” Barnes said.
Just before Barnes sentenced Alamo, the evangelist offered a brief statement to the court praising God then later adding:
“I’m glad I’m me and not the deceived people in the world.”
Alamo’s lawyers said they planned to appeal Barnes’ ruling. His defense offered a doctor who said he suffered from hardening arteries, diabetes, glaucoma and other health problems. However on cross-examination the doctor acknowledged he saw Alamo only once in 2004 and that the purpose of Alamo’s visit was to get an eye lift to make him appear younger.
The evangelist will stay in Texarkana pending a Jan. 13 hearing in which Barnes will decide whether Alamo’s victims will get restitution from him. After that hearing, Barnes said Alamo would go to a federal prison that has hospital facilities.
A woman Alamo took as a child “bride” at age 8 challenged the evangelist from the witness stand Friday to submit himself to God’s judgment. Reading from lined notebook paper, she said Alamo tore her family apart by taking her as a child bride and described how she shook uncontrollably when he first molested her.
“You preyed on innocent children,” she said staring down Alamo, who wore yellow prison scrubs and a windbreaker for the hearing.
“You have the audacity to ask for mercy. What mercy did you show us?” she said.
A moment later she asked, “What kind of man of God does what you have done?”
The woman told Barnes that she planned to become an FBI agent in order to help other child sex abuse victims.
Two other child brides testified. One, who said she is now employed full-time and has a life of her own outside of the ministry, said she hoped Alamo would spend the rest of his life in jail.
“Maybe the real God, not the God you made up, will have mercy on your soul,” the woman said.
Barnes said there was ample evidence that Alamo engaged in a pattern of molesting younger and younger girls in his ministry.
Alamo accused his victims of lying, as he has done throughout his prosecution.
SOURCE:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/evangelist-tony-alamo-175-years-jail-sex-crimes-article-1.419366