2/18/09 – Jailed Alamo follower [Douglas Christopher] denied bail reduction
Texarkana Gazette
February 18, 2009
By: Lynn LaRowe
Jailed Alamo follower denied bail reduction
A jailed follower of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries lost his bid Tuesday for a reduction in his $100,000 bail before a judge in California.
Allen Matthew Rehn, alias Douglas Christopher, will return to court in San Fernando, Calif., later this month for a pretrial hearing.
The 55-year-old Christopher has long-standing ties to Alamo. Christopher turned himself in last month at a courthouse in Santa Clarita, Calif., at the urging of Arkansas child welfare officials.
Christopher’s children are among 36 removed by the Arkansas Department of Human Services from the custody of their Alamo-following parents.
Christopher, along with Alamo and four other men, is charged with two counts of felony child abuse in connection with the 1988 beating of 12-year-old Justin Miller.
Justin lived on ministry property in Santa Clarita with his parents and siblings. His uncle and a cousin also lived on church property.
His father and uncle had left the church when the beating occurred.
“… Mr. Alamo put on ‘public exhibitions of corporal punishment, in the form of paddling, upon minor children’; and the proof amply showed that Justin Miller, while being restrained by four adult men, was struck vigorously 140 times with a large wooden paddle by a grown man … this punishment was inflicted in a room filled with adults and children and was not only painful (Justin’s buttocks were bleeding) but humiliating in the extreme. One of the adult witnesses, indeed one of the principal participants, was Justin’s mother,” wrote then U.S. District Judge Morris Arnold, who awarded damages to the family. “No feeling person could fail to be moved by the testimony in this case or to be revolted by the cold-blooded and calculated manner in which the punishment of Justin Miller was carried out.”
Christopher is one of the men who allegedly held Justin as the beating was administered.
Charges against Alamo were dismissed when he was sentenced to federal prison for tax evasion. The 74-year-old allegedly directed the beating via speakerphone from a nearby building after other followers reported Justin for wearing a leather scarf without permission and belching in a prayer room, according to previous news reports.
Justin, his siblings and his cousin were removed several months after the beating and reunited with their fathers, according to court documents.
Warrants for three others, including Justin’s mother, remain active in the case.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Let this be a warning to any who would participate in Tony Alamo’s criminal activities. You will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will be held accountable for your actions.