2/27/14 – Daily Mail (United Kingdom) : Half a billion dollars is awarded to seven former ‘child brides’ of pedophile televangelist who sexually abused them when they were girls
Mailonline.com (United Kingdom)
February 27, 2014
By Michael Zennie and Associated Press Reporter
Tony Alamo, a televangelist who formed a massive ministry, was convicted of beating sexually abusing several girls while he ran Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Church
One woman testified that he abused her from age 9 until she escaped at age 15
Took several girls and women as his wives
Alamo is currently serving 175 years in federal prison on sex assault charges
His ministry owns still ‘billions’ in property and water rights
Half a billion dollars in damages have been awarded to seven women who were raped and beaten for years by a pedophile televangelist who took them as his ‘child brides.’
They are the victims of Tony Alamo – a charismatic Pentecostal preacher whose massive Alamo Ministries has been branded a polygamist cult.
The women described being repeatedly molested and sexually abused, some starting at age 9, by Alamo.
Despite serving a 175-year prison sentence for rape and child sex trafficking, Alamo and his ministry are believed to have billions of dollars in assets, mostly water rights in California.
Miller County, Arkansas, Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson entered a default judgment this week against Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Church, an arm of Alamo Ministries, after the southwest Arkansas-based group failed to respond to the civil suit.
Johnson awarded the women a total of $525 million in actual and punitive damages.
In the judgment, Johnson wrote that Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Church acted ‘willfully and maliciously’ in causing the plaintiffs’ damages.
Alamo, now 79, is serving a 175-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2009 of taking several young girls across state lines for sex. The victims in the civil case are among the victims from Alamo’s criminal case.
The attorney for the victims – now grown women – David Carter believes the personal injury judgment is the largest in the history of Miller County and the state of Arkansas. He also thinks he can get his clients most – if not all – of the money.
Mr Carter introduced evidence found during a search of ministry properties in Fouke, Arkansas, alleging that water rights on property Alamo holds in Santa Clarita, California, are worth several billion dollars.
Carter said he will register the judgment in California and begin proceedings to have properties in that state sold to satisfy the judgment.
Mr Carter said he’s very satisfied with the court’s judgment.
‘It serves as notice that you cannot facilitate or enable abuse without answering for your responsibility in court,’ he told The Associated Press.
The actual damages awarded to each woman range from $10 million to $29 million. The court also gave each plaintiff punitive damages worth double the amount of actual damage. Those range from $20 million to $58 million.
The lawsuit also names Alamo and Jeanne Estates Apartments, which were operated by the church and controlled by Alamo. Rulings have not been issued against those defendants.
A federal judge recently dismissed a similar case, saying it should be heard in state court. U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey said it would be inappropriate to hear the case in federal court, knowing that the case would have to be re-litigated in state court.
The lawyer who represented Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Church in federal court said he was not involved in the state court litigation, and attempts at finding a lawyer who did represent the church in Miller County Circuit Court were unsuccessful. There is no lawyer listed for Twenty First Holiness Tabernacle Church on the judgment order.
According to the Texarkana Gazette, one of the women testified during a hearing Monday that when she was 8, Alamo took her to his room and laid her on his bed. He then put his hands up her shirt and down her pants, she said.
‘A few days later, he asked me to be his wife,’ she said. The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sexual assault.
She said she was forcibly raped from age 9 until she escaped the ministry at age 15 and had been beaten when Alamo thought she was flirting with a waiter.
‘Tony had older wives beat younger wives. They had to beat with all their force or Tony would beat them,’ the woman said, according to the newspaper.
‘He told us we were stupid, ugly, and that we didn’t mean anything. He would cuss us while hitting us at the same time.’
Alamo was born Bernie ‘Mark’ Hoffman to a Jewish family in Joplin, Missouri. From the beginning, he had dreams of stardom.
He has one son, born in 1964 to his first legal wife, Helen Hagan.
Alamo was legally married two other times. His second wife Susan died of cancer in 1982. After her death, Alamo had her body put on display in a mausoleum for six months. He required his followers to pray over her body and claimed she would be resurrected.
Sixteen years after Susan’s death, he returned her remains to her family.
Alamo was also a fashion designer and merchandiser of some success. He opened a shop, The Alamo of Nashville, that sold duds he had designed. His customers included some high-profile names.
Michael Jackson reportedly owned two of Alamo’s bib shirts.
He also made and sold his own line of sequined denim jackets that bore his label – Tony Alamo.
Tony moved to Los Angeles, where he met Susan – an aspiring actress, who helped him found his ministry. Susan’s daughter from a previous relationship, Christhiaon Coie, told the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2008 that Alamo began his ministry in the 1970s by inviting hippies to his apartment and ‘saving’ them.
He convinced his followers that they needed to send him money and give him their world possessions in order to be saved.
As the SPLC reports, Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Church was ‘based more on hatred and financial gain than genuine religious sentiment.’