1/27/10 – AP: Tony Alamo: Custody hearings for children taken from compound
Today’s THV
January 27, 2010
Ashley Blackstone, The Associated Press
Tony Alamo: Custody hearings for children taken from compound
Hearings are scheduled in Miller County Circuit Court on the custody status of children taken from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.
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The Arkansas Department of Human Services is expected to ask that parental rights be terminated so the children can be put up for adoption.
DHS spokeswoman Julie Munsell says termination of parental rights is typically requested when parents are not meeting conditions set out by a judge to be reunited with their children.
Cheryl Barnes of the CPS Watch Legal Team is an advocate for the parents. Barnes says the hearings are for 15 children ages 2 to 16 from four families.
Barnes says the parents contend an order that they separate themselves from the Alamo ministry violates their religious freedoms.
Alamo was sentenced to 175 years in prison for convictions on a 10-count indictment for taking children across state lines for sex.