8/6/09 – TG: Alamo associate, sex offender Jonathan Curry, to appear before federal judge next month
Texarkana Gazette
August 6, 2009
By: Lynn LaRowe
Alamo associate to appear before federal judge next month
An associate of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, who pleaded guilty to violating federal sex offender registration laws, will appear before a federal judge in Fort Smith, Ark., for sentencing later this month.
Jonathan Curry could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and could be fined up to $250,000. He has been charged in the Fort Smith division of the Western District of Arkansas.
Varina Pini said her daughter was married to Curry when their family was a part of Alamo’s group. Pini said she joined in 1970 and left in 1996.
The woman Curry wed was 17 years his junior and possesses animosity toward her mother because she didn’t stop the union.
“She holds it against me to this day. I understand that, I was the adult and I didn’t stop it,” Pini said. “Many of her friends who grew up there married older men. In some cases it was OK and in some it was unfortunate. Tony told her it was God’s will.”
Curry, 50, was arrested in January in Fort Smith after telling an FBI special agent he lived in a ministry warehouse there. A sign on the door of his bedroom read, “Keep out Jon Curry’s room,” according to an arrest affidavit.
Curry was convicted in 2002 of attempted lewdness with a minor involving a child below the age of 14 in Clark County, Nev., according to the affidavit. Las Vegas is in Clark County.
Upon release from Nevada state prison on Nov. 20, 2007, Curry was to be supervised for life and was ordered to register as a sex offender. But he resisted supervision and never registered in Nevada or in Arkansas, the affidavit said.
A motion to dismiss the charges against Curry on grounds the law is unconstitutional was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Robert T. Dawson and Curry entered a guilty plea in April.
Tony Alamo, whose real name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, was convicted July 24 of bringing young girls across state lines for sex. He will be sentenced in about six to eight weeks from the date of his conviction by U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas in downtown Texarkana.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
My name is Cindi Jo Angulo. I am the “woman” who was wed to Jonathan Curry. First of all, I was not a woman. I was a 15 year old child. I do very much hold my parents responsible as well as Tony Alamo for that arranged marriage. It was not a marriage it was more like an arrangment to be raped over and over again and have one child after another as birth control was “of the devil” and forbidden. Jonathan Curry has mental disabilities and because of that all three of my children with him have some sort of mental or physical impairments. You know the saying, “move forward” when something bad has happened to you in your life? Well, I have no other choice but to move forward but with a constant reminder… my children. It would be one thing if I liked the guy or if he was normal but neither. I cannot find the appropriate words to convey how deeply I am affected by this. My mother is correct when she stated I hold against her to this day because it should have never ever happened and I’m the one who has to live with it not her or my father or Jon Curry. The whole thing sickens me.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I am so, so sorry this happened to you. It just makes me sick to my stomach to hear these stories.
You have every right to be angry and to feel betrayed. We should all (your parents, especially) have protected you and all the children much better than we did. It was our job as adults, as parents, as just members of the human race.
You may not remember me (Mindi’s mom) as we left when you and Mindi were about 11 or 12. Consequently, we were not there (for which I am thankful) when they started preying on the young girls for sex, forcing them into “marriage” and whatever else went on, but I was there for other evils that also fell under the label of “God’s will”, which I felt I could do little about – but should have done more. I sometimes lied like mad to prevent children from being beaten for stupid stuff like tying their shoelaces wrong, but that was a small thing and didn’t prevent other children from being beaten for something else.
It was bad enough when I was there – it’s horrifying to learn that things got much, much worse later.
I don’t have any words of wisdom or anything, I just wanted to express my sorrow at all that has been done to you, and to the other children.
August 14th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I can’t believe I actually attended his ministry! It seemed like they (his church leaders) were on the right track about Jesus and the gospel but they must be twisting His word according to Alamo’s way. No wonder they always bragged about him and spoke of him like he was someone great second from Jesus! —- I was told by a person who used to know and live in one of Alamo’s mansions that Tony use to walk in the right path but when his wife died, Alamo was not the same anymore both personally and mentally.