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11/8/13 – Times Record Editorial: Tony Alamo’s Punishment Seems Inadequate ***COMMENTS***

Times Record Online Edition
November 8, 2013
Editorial

Tony Alamo’s Punishment Seems Inadequate

It’s a story we hope is moving toward its conclusion. A federal magistrate last week ordered six properties of evangelist and convicted sex offender Tony Alamo sold to satisfy part of the civil judgement against him.

The order instructs the U.S. Marshal to sell the properties in Fort Smith in partial payment to Spencer Ondrisek and Seth Calagna. Mr. Alamo, identified in court documents by his birth name, Bernie Lazar Hoffman, was ordered to pay each man $15 million after he was convicted in 2011 of ordering the beating, starvation and other abuse of the two when they were children at Alamo ministries.

Members of the group tried to stop sale of the properties by claiming the land belonged to the ministry or to its members collectively, according to The Associated Press in a report in Monday’s edition.

Magistrate Barry Bryant found otherwise, declaring Mr. Alamo the true owner of the property, according to the report, which cites the Texarkana Gazette.

Mr. Alamo, now 79, remains in prison where he serves a 175-year sentence for bringing girls as young as 8 across state lines for sex.

In asking the properties be sold, attorneys for Mr. Ondrisek and Mr. Calagna produced more than 300 emails from Mr. Alamo they said indicated that he continues to manage the day-to-day operations of the ministry and its businesses.

The attorneys say they will continue to fight for their clients and seek the sale of “all Alamo properties, regardless of where they may be located or how long it takes,” according to the AP report.

Magistrate Bryant recently signed another order approving the sale of 12 more properties, the report said.

It remains shocking that someone convicted of crimes as heinous as Mr. Alamo’s should find himself still able to run his businesses and maintain control over the ministries’ members. The crimes of which he is convicted and the actions that led to the civil settlement against him are not financial, white-collar or minor crimes. They are crimes against the bodies and persons of young girls and boys.

We do not imagine that a 175-year sentence given to someone of Mr. Alamo’s age is meant as an opportunity for rehabilitation; it is rather designed to protect society from his influence. If he continues to run his sleazy empire from jail, we cannot see that the sentence is effective or that justice is served.
– See more at: http://swtimes.com/opinion/how-we-see-it/editorial-tony-alamos-punishment-seems-inadequate#sthash.tB2DcuZ6.dpuf

In: 2013, Editorials

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  1. Voice of Reason Says:

    “Magistrate Bryant recently signed another order approving the sale of 12 more properties, the report said.”

    Does anyone know where the next 12 properties are located?

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