11/24/08 – Alamo expected to testify today
Texarkana Gazette
November 24, 2008
By: Lynn LaRowe
Alamo expected to testify today
A Miller County circuit judge may decide today if 20 children of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries members will remain in state care or go home.
They were placed in foster care last week when the Arkansas Department of Human Services executed a court order authorizing their removal.
Alamo, whose real name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, was served with a subpoena Friday requiring his attendance at the probable cause hearing for the 20 children. The controversial evangelist is in a cell in the jail annex behind the Bi-State Justice Building in downtown Texarkana.
Alamo is listed as the father of at least one child named on the Miller County removal order. But that child was not found Tuesday when DHS, accompanied by members of the Arkansas State Police, stopped two black Ford Excursions as they headed away from Alamo properties in Fouke, Ark., toward the Texas state line.
An order permitting the removal of children from Alamo properties in Fort Smith was executed at the same time as the one in Miller County but no children were found there. The locations of more than 100 juveniles whose names appeared on the Miller County order, including Alamo’s alleged child, remain a mystery. As of Friday, none of the children missing from Miller and Sebastian County Alamo properties had been found.
Alamo’s defense attorney said the evangelist doesn’t know where to find the children.
“He’s in jail and they monitor his phone calls,” said attorney John Wesley Hall Jr. of Little Rock.
“If he knew they’d know too,” said Hall of law enforcement.
The mother listed on the Miller County order of the child purported to be Alamo’s is not the church leader’s legal spouse.
Circuit Judge Jim Hudson said DHS proved Alamo is a practicing polygamist during custody hearings he conducted Friday for two of six girls removed from the Fouke properties in September. Hudson ordered that the girls would remain in foster care but could be reunited with their parents if economic, employment and residential ties to the ministry were severed.
Alamo denies having any other wives than legal spouse Sharon Alamo.
Circuit Judge Joe Griffin will continue custody hearings today at the Miller County Juvenile Courthouse for the remaining two pairs of sisters removed by DHS in September. The recommendations of their ad litem attorneys and DHS are likely to mirror those in the cases Hudson decided Friday.
Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson will preside over the first custody hearing for the 20 children taken last week. Their ages range from 14 months to 17 years. At least two of the youngest children were still breast feeding when the court-imposed family separations occurred, said their mothers the day after the removal. Johnson is expected to decide today if enough evidence of abuse or neglect exists to keep the 20 children in foster care.
Hall said Alamo will deny allegations of sexual and physical abuse.
“If you beat somebody with a two-by-four they’d be dead,” Hall said. “Give me a break.”
Hall said Alamo denies ever ordering his alleged enforcer John Kolbeck to beat children or adults with a three foot long wooden paddle.
Warrants for Kolbeck’s arrest have been issued at the state and federal levels in connection with the alleged beatings, but his whereabouts are unknown.
“He (Alamo) said he doesn’t have a window in his cell so he can’t look for him,” Hall said.
Security is expected to be tight at the Miller County Courthouse. The second floor will be closed to anyone whose presence isn’t needed in the hearing, said Tom Harness, coordinator of court security.
Federal marshals will bring the 74-year-old accused church leader to the courthouse for the hearing.
The 20 children are all part of the same case. Johnson could determine their issues differ enough to warrant separating them into multiple actions.
If he does, circuit judges from other areas of the state may be asked to supervise hearings so the local judiciary isn’t strained.
The 20 children are all part of the same case. Johnson could determine their issues differ enough to warrant separating them into multiple actions.
If he does, circuit judges from other areas of the state may be asked to supervise hearings so the local judiciary isn’t strained.
Lawyers appointed to represent the parents of some of the 20 children seized during Tuesday’s traffic stop met Sunday evening in Fouke to discuss strategy for the probable cause hearing. Little Rock lawyer Phillip James, counsel for a couple whose six kids were among the recently taken, said before the meeting he wasn’t sure if there would be testimony heard Monday or if the parents would waive the hearings.
Alamo faces criminal charges for allegedly violating a federal law that forbids the transporting of minors across state lines for sex. His trial is scheduled for February in Texarkana. U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes of the Western District of Arkansas will preside.