9/12/12 – AP: Tony Alamo asks for new hearing on lawsuit appeal
ABC News 4 (Charleston)
September 12, 2012
By The Associated Press
Tony Alamo asks for new hearing on lawsuit appeal
Attorneys for convicted evangelist Tony Alamo are asking the full U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to consider Alamo’s appeal of a lawsuit that found he ordered two children in his religious compound be beaten.
A jury found in favor of Spencer Ondrisek and Seth Calagna, who sued Alamo for allegedly ordering that they be beaten and bullied when they were children at Alamo’s compound.
The appeal filed Tuesday contends the court’s three-judge panel wrongly found no error in jury instructions. Alamo’s attorneys wanted the jury to be instructed that corporal punishment was reasonable by school personnel and others in certain circumstances.
Alamo is serving a 175-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2009 of taking young girls across state lines for sex.