7/10/09 – Newsday (AP): Prosecutors: Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo ‘married’ underage girls, gave them rings
Newsday
July 10, 2009
JON GAMBRELL Associated Press Writer
Prosecutors: Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo ‘married’ underage girls, gave them rings
Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo “married” the underage girls he allegedly forced into sex, exchanging wedding vows and rings, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors made the claim as lawyers met Friday with U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes about Alamo’s trial, slated to begin next week. The trial, scheduled to last two weeks, will put Alamo’s lawyers in a delicate position of trying to tear into the credibility of the evangelist’s alleged victims on the stand while trying to not alienate jurors in the conservative southwestern Arkansas town.
“We’re looking forward to the trial and looking forward to vindicating Mr. Alamo,” defense lawyer Don Ervin told The Associated Press Friday. “His spirits are high and he is strong and he is ready to go to trial.”
Alamo, 74, has pleaded not guilty to the 10-count federal indictment. FBI agents and Arkansas State Police troopers raided Alamo’s 15-acre complex in Fouke on Sept. 20, searching for evidence of child pornography. Agents arrested the evangelist five days later in Flagstaff, Ariz.
In the closed-door hearing in Barnes’ chambers, lawyers argued over a series of defense motions seeking to limit what prosecutors can use at trial. Meeting minutes filed by a court clerk show Barnes dismissed the majority of the defense requests seeking to name FBI informants, suppress evidence found during the Fouke search and offer other records.
However, Barnes granted portions of defense lawyers’ request to stop prosecutors from offering jurors Alamo’s criminal record and using words like “polygamy,” ”cult” and “compound” at trial. Barnes did not immediately issue a written order Friday clarifying what portions of the defense request he had granted.
Ervin said Barnes would address motions in the case again Monday, when a pool of jurors from across western Arkansas will come to Texarkana for jury selection. Court officials expect opening arguments in the case by Wednesday.
Late Thursday, prosecutors filed a motion to reject the defense request. In it, they alleged Alamo used the marriages and physical abuse to keep the girls under his control. Alamo also took girls with him to West Virginia and Memphis, Tenn., to have sex with while he prepared for a 1994 tax-evasion trial, prosecutors said.
Alamo served four years in federal prison after being convicted in that trial. Alamo took another underage girl across state lines for sex while still living at a halfway house in Texarkana, prosecutors said.
“It demonstrates that (Alamo’s) true motive in transporting the victims of this case across state lines at various times and in various ways, was not to merely have them available for ‘office work,’ but that would allow him to maintain his sexual relationship with each of them,” the prosecutors’ filing reads.
Prosecutors also said Alamo had sexual relationships with several different partners at a time and believed in polygamy, but stopped short of calling him a practicing polygamist. A previous defense lawyer for Alamo said the evangelist “spiritually” married and divorced multiple women who continued to live with him.
Ervin said “no” when asked Friday if Alamo practiced polygamy. He declined to discuss the prosecutors’ claims about Alamo exchanging wedding rings and vows with the alleged victims, saying that would be discussed at trial.
Since the Fouke raid, state child-welfare officials have seized 36 children associated with Alamo’s ministry. A separate lawsuit the ministry filed against the state claims the raid fractured Alamo’s ministry and sent many followers into hiding. Ervin said that hasn’t prevented Alamo’s defense team from finding witnesses to testify on his behalf.
“He is still their leader,” the lawyer said. “The last time I visited the ministry, it looked fine. There were dedicated members and the ministry seemed to be functioning very well.”
The evangelist remains held without bond pending trial.
July 11th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Luke 16:18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.
Matthieu 5: 31 It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32 But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Matthew 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
9 And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
Mark 10:5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.
11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Malachi 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit.
And wherefore one?
That he might seek a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
July 11th, 2009 at 7:04 am
1 Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
July 11th, 2009 at 7:08 am
For Christians , divorce and remarriage is allows only in the case of adultery or in this case :
1 Corinthians 5: 15 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases..
What about a Christian who leaves home and backslide fully…?