Court upholds suit’s dismissal in Alamo case
8th Circuit finds for state agency

A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld the dismissal of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries’ lawsuit against the state Department of Human Services — but for a different reason from the one the trial judge cited in dismissing the church’s claims in 2010.

The lawsuit, filed in April 2009 by the church and two members, accused the Human Services Department of a campaign of “harassment” that included the removal of 36 children from their homes in the ministry amid an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

In a ruling Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the church’s claims are barred because they are connected with proceedings in state court that were pending when the suit was filed.

Susan Richard Nelson, a federal district judge in St. Paul, Minn., who served on the panel, wrote for the judges that the federal courts couldn’t interfere with state court proceedings unless it was shown that the proceedings were initiated in “bad faith.”

That hadn’t been proved by the Alamo ministry, Nelson wrote. She noted that decisions on the removal of the children and the termination of members’ parental rights had been upheld by the state Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court.

“Contrary to TACM’s argument that we must accept as true all of the allegations as pled, the numerous state appellate decisions undermine the plausibility of such allegations,” Nelson wrote.

The Human Services Department began seizing children from their homes in the ministry in Fouke and Fort Smith in 2008, saying they were endangered by practices that included allowing underage girls to marry and punishing misbehavior with beatings.

Tony Alamo, the ministry’s leader, was convicted in federal court in 2009 of taking underage girls across state lines for sex and was sentenced to 175 years in prison.

The pending state child welfare proceedings were also cited by U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes as a reason to dismiss claims in the lawsuit by the two church members, Greg Seago and Bert Krantz.

Barnes noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that federal courts should not interfere with state court proceedings except in unusual circumstances, such as when state authorities have acted in bad faith.

As for the church itself, however, Barnes said it did not have the standing to file the suit because it did not allege an “injury to a legally protected interest.” Seago and Krantz did not appeal Barnes’ dismissal of their claims.

In the ruling Wednesday, Nelson wrote that the panel didn’t need to address the standing issue because the church’s claims, like those of the church’s members, are barred under the doctrine stemming from the 1971 Supreme Court ruling.

Although the church was not a party to the state child welfare proceedings, Nelson wrote, its claims stemmed from the complaints of members who were parties.

The other members of the panel were appeals court Judges James Loken of Minneapolis and Steven Colloton of Des Moines, Iowa.

Little Rock attorney John Wesley Hall Jr., who represented the church in the appeal, said he didn’t know Wednesday whether the church would ask for a rehearing before the full 11-member appeals court or seek a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Appeals court upholds dismissal of Alamo Ministries civil suit

A federal appeals court on today upheld a judge’s order dismissing a lawsuit filed by Tony Alamo Christian Ministries over the removal of children from its compound in 2008.

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.

Barnes had cited Younger v. Harris only in regard to the individual plaintiffs and had dismissed the ministry’s claims because he said the ministry lacked standing. The ministry argued on appeal that it did have standing, but the 8th Circuit said Wednesday that the abstention rule set forth in Younger v. Harris was equally applicable to the ministry, so the issue of standing was irrelevant.

“Abstention applies to TACM because it alleges standing based on injuries that are either directly or indirectly derivative of those of the individual plaintiffs,” Judge Susan Nelson, a U.S. district judge from Minnesota specially appointed to hear the case along with two 8th Circuit judges, wrote in the opinion.

The appeals court also said the constitutional arguments in the federal lawsuit have been raised by members of the ministry in state court proceedings, including by Krantz and Seago, and state courts have rejected those arguments.

In April 2011, the state Supreme Court affirmed several circuit court decisions terminating various church members’ parental rights, including those of Krantz and Seago.

The appeals court acknowledged today that the state proceedings apparently were concluded at that point, but it said they were still ongoing when Barnes dismissed the federal lawsuit in 2010, so the judge ruled appropriately.

The appeals court also rejected the ministry’s argument that the state seized the children as an act of harassment and intimidation. Given that the state Supreme Court upheld the children’s removal and the termination of church members’ parental rights, the argument was not plausible, the 8th Circuit said.

Joining Nelson in the opinion were 8th Circuit Judges James Loken and Steven Colloton.

John Wesley Hall, attorney for the ministry, did not immediately return a call seeking comment today.

Appeals court upholds judge’s decision to dismiss Tony Alamo ministries suit against Ark. DHS

A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s decision to dismiss Tony Alamo Christian Ministries’ lawsuit against the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday sided with U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes’ decision to dismiss the suit, which accuses DHS of harassing the church with a campaign that included removing 36 children from their parents.

DHS said the children were beaten and underage girls were allowed to marry.

Ministry founder Tony Alamo is in prison after he was convicted of taking underage girls across state lines for sex.

Attorney John Wesley Hall had asked the federal appeals court to reinstate the ministries’ lawsuit. He didn’t immediately respond to a message left Wednesday.

The trial and law enforcement teams that investigated and prosecuted Bernie Hoffman, also known as Tony Alamo, was among the 163 members of the Department of Justice recognized by Attorney General Eric Holder and Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) Director Marshall Jarrett at the 28th Annual Director’s Awards Ceremony Friday in Washington D.C..

The attorneys, agents and staff recognized were: Assistant United States Attorneys Clay Fowlkes, Kyra Jenner, and Candace Taylor, and Paralegal Specialist Karen Gentry of the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas; Susan Goldsmith, M. Randall Harris, Carl Malloy, Tim Akins, Frances Casteel, Kim Weems, Jeanette Miller, Sherri Funk, all of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and John Bishop of the Arkansas State Police. Christine Larru and Jane Witten, formerly of the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas, also were recognized at Friday’s ceremony.

Cult Leader Alamo Still Ministering from Prison
Threats, rumors and 24-hour security raise suspicions about local church

Commuters pass it every day on their way to work. Neighbors have reported odd sightings and have been threatened for getting too close. Vans come and go two or three times a day. There is 24-hour security and large white fences that block the view of the housing complex near the highway.

Up Sierra Highway past Davenport Road in Agua Dulce sits the storied Tony Alamo Christian Church.

The church was deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its anti-Catholic teachings.

Rumors of brainwashing and polygamy have surrounded the ministry since its establishment in the 1960s. Its founder, 77-year-old Tony Alamo, was sentenced Nov. 13, 2009, to 175 years in prison for trafficking underage girls across state lines for sex.

A call to the church hotline reveals: “Pastor Alamo is currently serving the ministries from prison, writing scripture and sending it here to us, along with providing salvation for the terrorists and murderers in prison with him.”

Public records list Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Inc. as the owner of the property where the church complex is located. The company also owns a parcel of land and some houses behind the Halfway House Café, farther down Sierra Highway.

The company was founded and run by Tony Alamo, and it is the name most of his properties are under today.

Public records also show the property is managed by Rodi Pollock Pettker Galbraith, a Los Angeles law firm. Company officials refused to comment about their involvement with Tony Alamo and his businesses.

Locals describe it as a suspicious place. No one knows what is going on behind closed doors, except for the religious followers.

Neighbors report that vans pass by the Halfway House at least once a day at around the same time, but the property looks to be vacant with the exception of a standard-looking white Ford van and an old station wagon. Blinds in all of the houses are drawn, and there is no movement or noise.

Waitress Sally Moore reports witnessing strange things since she started working at the Halfway House.

“My son used to play with some of the kids who lived back there,” said Moore, 50. “All of them were home-schooled and I never saw any girls, only teenage boys.”

Although her son never reported any strange occurrences, Moore never let him enter any of the Alamo homes.

“About a year ago a young girl ‘escaped’ with a man,” she said. “They sat in the corner of the café for about an hour to wait for a taxi. Another middle-aged man showed up and tried to convince the girl to come back to say goodbye to the rest of the people at the complex. In the middle of a heavy rainstorm, the two people went outside to wait for the cab, arguing with the middle-aged man until they finally left.”

Twenty-four hour security keeps watch over people entering or exiting church property.

Lauren Weightman, 21, of Agua Dulce, was riding a quad one day on the mountains behind her house, which sits near the back of the church property. She ran out of gas and continued to walk down the mountain to meet someone who had brought her gas for the quad.

“A man popped out of the bushes,” she said. “I didn’t hear him coming, so it scared me. He told me to get off the church’s property because I was trespassing. I thought it was weird he was out in the middle of nowhere.”

Neighbors report séances held at the late hours of the night.

“I went outside and heard voices, so my family and I went to check on it,” said Kaitlyn Clunich. “We got too close, and they warned us if we didn’t leave and go back in our house, they would call the police.”

Child Abuse Claims

The church complex was raided in 1988 by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives who were investigating reports of child abuse. The deputies found three boys who were subjected to the abuse and returned them to their fathers who had been previously excommunicated by the church.

Victims have come forward to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show to share their stories of Alamo and the hellish environment he created.

Victims told Winfrey they were made to be Alamo’s “spiritual wives” at the tender ages of 8 to 12. They said they were sexually assaulted, drugged and beaten by Alamo until they escaped.

Tony Alamo started his ministry in Hollywood in 1969 with his late wife, Susan Alamo. Born Bernie Lazar Hoffman, Alamo has been in and out of jail since that time for an assortment of crimes including tax evasion, theft, trafficking of underage girls, child abuse, illegal weapons charges, violating the Fair Labor Act, and he has been accused of polygamy.

Persons at the Tony Alamo prayer and information hotline declined to comment on Alamo’s conviction on 10 counts of transporting underage girls across state lines for sex. They did, however, comment on why there is 24-hour security.

“There have been shootings and violent crimes against members of the church and the church’s property,” a spokesperson said.

Alamo’s lawyers have indicated they plan to appeal his verdict and to prove his innocence.

Alamo ill in hospital, attorney tells court

Convicted evangelist Tony Alamo has been hospitalized for
three weeks after a mild heart attack, his attorney said.

John Wesley Hall of Little Rock said during a court hearing Friday
that Alamo also has double pneumonia and a liver ailment.

Alamo, 77, is serving a 175-year sentence at a federal prison in Terre
Haute, Ind. He was convicted in July 2009 of taking five girls across
state lines for sex.

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.

Lawyers in the civil case intend to question Alamo Dec. 14-15 at the
prison. Texarkana attorney Neil Smith said the deposition can be
rescheduled to accommodate Alamo’s physical condition.

Also addressed at the hearing were arrangements for defense-requested
psychological examinations of the seven plaintiffs.

The suit initially named several high-ranking ministry members,
ministry-run businesses and a security company as defendants. The
plaintiffs claim the defendants have violated human trafficking laws
and should have acted to protect them from Alamo.

Tony Alamo, Sharon Alamo and the plaintiffs’ parents were later added
as third-party defendants by the original defendants. They allege the
parents and the Alamos should be held accountable in the event of a
judgment favorable to the plaintiffs.

There are at least 13 defendants in the case.

Hall did not immediately return a message left Saturday by The
Associated Press, and a phone call to the prison rang unanswered.

Convicted evangelist Alamo no longer hospitalized

The lawyer for an Arkansas 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.

Defense attorney John Wesley Hall says Tony Alamo told his family that he was suffering from double pneumonia, liver problems and other ailments.

Hall also told The Associated Press on Saturday that he believed Almo was hospitalized for about two weeks up until a week ago.

The 77-year-old Alamo is serving a 175-year-prison sentence in Indiana.

His hospitalization was first disclosed Friday during a court hearing for a lawsuit filed by six women who say Alamo took them as child “brides.” A seventh plaintiff says she was being groomed as his bride before she escaped his ministry in southwest Arkansas.

Judge denies Alamo attorney’s request to halt civil lawsuit

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

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.

Initially, the suit named Alamo Ministry controlled businesses and several high-ranking individuals in the organization as defendants. The suit was amended by the plaintiffs to include as a defendant the owner of a security company that once provided armed guards to patrol ministry property in Fouke, Ark.

Later, the defendants filed petitions to have the parents of the girls and Sharon Alamo and Tony Alamo, whose given name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, added as defendants as well.

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.

Holmes’ order addresses another issue in the case.

“Communication between the parties, or lack thereof, seems to be a recurring issue raised in the various filings, and miscommunication and misunderstandings often result in a flurry of yet more docket entries,” the order states.

Holmes expresses a desire the lawyers work together to eliminate excessive filings.

He cites numerous motions filed by the defendants concerning their desire to halt the case as examples.

“In an effort to reduce confusion, consternation, and the continuance of duplicative and overzealous filings regarding this issue, the court sets forth its findings as to the stay issue. …” the order states.

The case is scheduled for trial next year.

Judge refuses to halt civil suit against jailed evangelist Tony Alamo; ex-wives seek damages

A federal judge in Texarkana has refused to block a civil lawsuit against jailed evangelist Tony Alamo, who was convicted of transporting underage girls across state lines.

Alamo is being sued by six women he took as his “wives” when they were young adolescents as Alamo ran his ministry in Fouke.

The Texarkana Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/skGzut ) [The entire article may be read by clicking here] that a component of Alamo’s 175-year-jail sentence given in 2010 requires Alamo to pay five of the women $250,000 each.

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 over a fear the government is investigating them and may bring more charges.

Holmes ruled he can’t block the 2012 trial over speculation about an investigation.

Justices won’t hear loyalists’ argument
Alamo followers lost parental rights in 2010 when they refused to end dependence on ministry

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear arguments from members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries whose parental rights were terminated when they refused to find housing and employment independent of the ministry.

The nation’s highest court Tuesday issued an order denying a petition for review of the case from the Alamo loyalists.

Three years ago last month,the FBI and Arkansas State Police raided the ministry’s Fouke, Ark., compound in search of evidence to support the claims of former members that Alamo was practicing polygamy and had married underage girls. Six girls were taken into state custody following the raid.

Alamo was arrested a few days later by federal authorities and charged with bringing young girls across state lines for sex.

Within two months of the raid, circuit judges in Miller and Sebastian counties, Ark., signed orders for the removal of all children living on ministry property in Fouke and Fort Smith.

Before the orders were executed, many of the parents fled with their children, and their whereabouts remain unknown. Three children were taken into custody as they appeared in court to testify in the custody cases of the six girls. Seventeen youngsters were taken by officials from sport utility vehicles that were stopped only minutes from the Texas state line.

Tony Alamo was convicted after a jury trial in July 2009 of all 10 counts listed in his federal indictment accusing him of bringing five women he’d wed as children across state lines for sex. He was sentenced to the maximum possible sentence—175 years—by a federal judge later that year.

In the months following removal of the children, the parents were ordered to find housing and employment separate from the ministry. Nearly all of them refused, and in 2010, parental rights were permanently severed.

Tuesday’s ruling likely means the parents have exhausted their appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Alamo’s bid for post conviction relief from his criminal sentence in June.