8/12/09 – ADG: Prosecutors get delay for convicted child abuser Tony Alamo case filing
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
August 12, 2009
By ANDY DAVIS
Prosecutors get delay for Alamo-case filing
A judge Tuesday gave prosecutors until Friday to file a response to evangelist Tony Alamo’s request for a new trial on charges that he transported five underage girls across state lines for sex.
The order by U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes granted a request by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner, who said in a court filing Monday, the day prosecutors’ response to Alamo’s request for a new trial was due, that she had been busy preparing for a sentencing hearing in another case.
In the two-paragraph order issued Tuesday, Barnes noted that Jenner said in her request that an attorney for Alamo had no objection to having the deadline extended.
Alamo, 74, was convicted last month of 10 counts of transporting girls across state lines in violation of the federal Mann Act. In their motion for a new trial, Alamo’s attorneys argued that the evidence was insufficient to convict him and that Barnes made several errors, including allowing testimony about Alamo’s relationships with adult women and allowing two witnesses to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against selfincriminating testimony in frontof the jury.
Barnes will rule on the request after prosecutors file their response.
Meanwhile, in a separate case involving Alamo’s ministry, Barnes granted the ministry an additional month to gather information for its lawsuit claiming that the Arkansas Department of Human Services has infringed on the religious freedoms of ministry members.
Barnes had given the ministry until Saturday to respond to a request by the Human Services Department to dismiss the case, but attorneys for the ministry said they needed more time to gather information. In an order Monday, Barnes extended the deadline to Sept. 15. The Human Services Department will then have five days to reply to the response.