11/14/09 – TG: Alamo receives 175 years in jail. Defense pleads for ‘more humane’ sentence for client
Texarkana Gazette
November 14, 2009
By: Lynn LaRowe
Alamo receives 175 years in jail
Defense pleads for ‘more humane’ sentence for client
Staff photo by Evan Lewis Gene “CUDA” Leslie of Texarkana, Texas, vice president of the Texarkana, Texas, chapter of the Bikers Against Child Abuse, stands outside the federal courthouse in Texarkana, Ark. About 35 BACA members from four states attended the sentencing of Tony Alamo.
Staff photo by Evan Lewis Tony Alamo answers questions from reporters Friday outside the courthouse in downtown Texarkana, Ark., shortly after he received 175 years in a federal prison from U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes of the Western District of Arkansas.
Tony Alamo was sentenced to a 175-year prison term Friday, ending any hope of freedom for the convicted sex offender and evangelist.
“This court believes you should be incarcerated in a federal prison for the rest of your natural life,” U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes told Alamo. “Some day you will meet a judge with higher authority than me. May he have mercy on your soul.”
Alamo, whose real name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, also received a $250,000 fine and $850 in special assessments. He was found guilty by a jury in July of all 10 counts of a federal indictment accusing him of bringing young girls he’d wed as children on trips across state lines so he could have sex with them if he chose.
“The heinousness of these crimes is unimaginable. A man 50 to 60 years old forcing himself on girls as young as 8,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner. “A 175-year sentence will protect other innocent children from a man some call Pastor Alamo but who has been exposed by this court as a sexual deviant.”
Alamo’s defense team pleaded for a “more humane” sentence.
“My client and I come here today kicking and screaming,” said Alamo’s lead defense attorney Don Ervin of Houston, describing the recommendation for punishment under federal sentencing guidelines as “astronomical.”
Ervin asked the court to consider Alamo’s good works around the world and his waning health.
“I can’t believe you have the audacity to ask for mercy,” said Jane Doe No. 2 in a victim impact statement. “What mercy did you ever show us? One day less on a fast maybe? Or 139 strikes with a board instead of 140? Did you ever once have mercy on an 8-year-old body?”
The sentence Barnes pronounced represents the maximum for each count to be served consecutively. On four counts, Alamo was eligible for 10 years, another three for 15 years, and on three others for 30.
Alamo was represented in the criminal case by Ervin, Phillip Kuhn of Florida and Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana. John Wesley Hall Jr., of Little Rock rejoined the team Thursday and will work with Ervin on Alamo’s appeal.
At the onset of the hearing, Barnes considered nine separate defense objections to a pre-sentence report containing a recommendation for punishment. He overruled them all.
“The victims were minors, 8 to 16 years old,” Barnes said in reference to a use of force enhancement. “They were smaller than the defendant. They were frightened into believing they would be punished and frightened with the threat of the loss of their salvation.”
The defense also wanted enhancements for crimes committed by a person of authority with care and custody over the victims removed.
“He talked to them as a pastor. He was parading as a father,” said Barnes who also denied a reduction in sentencing for medical reasons.
Dr. Samuel Berkman of the University of Los Angeles Medical Center examined Alamo in 2004 when he sought to have cosmetic “eye lift” surgery.
Berkman noted Alamo was diabetic, suffered from heart problems and was obese.
“Would it be fair to say Tony Alamo was a big fat man?’” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner asked Berkman.
“That sounds a little judgmental,” Berkman replied. “I’d probably say corpulent or something.”
Alamo has lost about 70 pounds since his arrest in September 2008.
Barnes agreed to recommend Alamo be placed initially in the Bureau of Prisons medical unit in Springfield, Mo. Once in the federal prison, officials will investigate any visitors to Alamo before allowing contact, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said.
Jenner said the BOP will be made aware that Alamo was able to run his ministry and fondle girls while a tax evasion inmate in a federal prison in Texarkana and will be handled “differently.”
Barnes would not consider a defense objection that the government has “merely speculated” that Alamo has access to assets and property in the section of the pre-sentence report concerning restitution to the victims.
“I don’t think this court needs to address that,” Barnes said.
Alamo will remain in jail in downtown Texarkana until a restitution hearing set for January to determine what he must pay his victims as recompense for the physical and psychological damages they’ve suffered.
The restitution issue was severed from sentencing after the defense complained more time to prepare was needed. According to documents filed by the defense, an expert witness for the government has estimated the cost for each “survivor” to be made whole physically and psychologically is $2,774,500.
The victim’s pain and suffering, educational deprivation and other damages have not been addressed in filings.
The defense’s recent request for more time in the restitution matter alludes the government has asserted that “reproductive ailments,” and other maladies from which the victims suffer are the result of Alamo’s abuse.
“They want to blame Tony Alamo for everything that’s happened to them then and now,” Ervin said. “Of course, we say none of this ever happened.”
As he was led from the courthouse following the hearing, Alamo said he was “falsely accused.”
Across the street, Antavia Meggs, a former follower, held a sign which read, “You reaped what you sowed. No mercy.”
Meggs’ three young children, ages 4, 5, and 6, were last seen in the custody of John and Jennifer Kolbek. John Kolbek is a fugitive who is wanted for allegedly beating kids and adults at Alamo’s bidding.
Earlier she’d held a sign that read, “Thank you Special Agent Randall Harris.”
“Randall Harris, you know, is our hero,” Jenner said of the FBI Special Agent who headed up the investigation.
Around Texarkana’s federal building dozens of motorcycles carrying members of Bikers Against Child Abuse were parked in support of the victims, one of whom is receiving services from the group and now has her own “road name.”
The bikers did not leave until Alamo was driven away.
A group of BACA members listened as Alamo witnessed and then condescended during the hearing.
“I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that through him thou shall be saved,” Alamo said. “I’m glad I’m me and not one of the deceived people.”
Alamo and his loyalists have claimed Alamo’s accusers are “brainwashed.”
Jane Doe No. 4, who wed Alamo at 15 because she didn’t want her pregnant mother and young siblings kicked out of the church, confronted her abuser as well.
“Now, Tony Alamo has to sit there and listen without being able to come at me and hit me,” she said. “I hope that while you’re serving time in prison you find the real God, not the one you made up.”
Longtime Alamo devotees Bert Krantz and Greg Seago testified on Alamo’s behalf.
“He’s an unusual man, an unusually good man,” Seago said. “I think it’s kind to tell people the rough tough truths of the Bible.”
However, their idyllic descriptions of life in Alamo’s ministry contrast starkly to that of Alamo’s victims.
“This world is so much better than your world because here there is justice,” Jane Doe No. 3 said. “My bad days in the real world are better than my best days were in your house, your hell.”