2/16/13 – TG – Alamo appeals to Supreme Court. Lawyers hope justices weigh in on big settlement in lawsuit
Texarkana Gazette
February 16, 2013
By: Lynn LaRowe – Texarkana Gazette
Alamo appeals to Supreme Court
Lawyers hope justices weigh in on big settlement in lawsuit
Tony Alamo wants the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a civil case that resulted in a multimillion-dollar judgment in favor of two men raised in the ministry.
Alamo’s lawyers filed a request with the nation’s highest court Thursday.
Alamo, whose given name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, currently owes Seth Calagna and Spencer Ondrisek $15 million each in actual and punitive damages resulting from a civil suit.
In June 2011 a jury in a federal court in Texarkana, Ark., awarded each man $3 million apiece in actual damages and $30 million each in punitive damages. The jury found Alamo guilty of conspiracy, battery and outrage.
An appellate court later reduced the punitive damages to $12 million for each man but left the actual damages intact. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which reduced the damages, issued a one-page opinion in November refusing to take a second look at the case.
Calagna’s and Ondrisek’s lawyer, David Carter of Texarkana, has recently taken steps to identify Alamo’s assets in hopes of collecting the judgment.
Alamo, 78, is currently serving a 175-year sentence in federal prison for bringing five women he wed as children across state lines for sex.
He was found guilty by a jury in 2009 of all 10 counts listed in a federal indictment in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas.
Alamo’s appellate options for his criminal conviction have been exhausted.