Pornography Is Target in Raid on Ministry
by the Associated Press
FOUKE, Ark. (AP) — Six minors have been temporarily placed in state custody as part of a child pornography investigation after a raid on a ministry here, officials said Sunday.
The children will be in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Human Services as investigators interview them, a spokesman for the state police, Bill Sadler, said.
Mr. Sadler did not say how long the interviews would last but did say that courts would decide the children’s status in the event of any “long-term separation” from the property of the ministry, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in rural Fouke.
He did not say how old the children were, but an e-mail message that the authorities inadvertently sent to news organizations last week referred to 12-, 13- and 14-year-old girls.
The move comes after a raid Saturday by more than 100 federal and state law enforcement agents. Investigators said their two-year inquiry into accusations of child pornography and abuse focused on a convicted tax evader, Tony Alamo, and his ministry, described by its critics as a cult.
Mr. Alamo said Saturday that the investigation was part of a federal push to legalize same-sex marriage while outlawing polygamy. He also said for girls having sex, “consent is puberty.”
The authorities’ search of the Fouke complex, in southwest Arkansas, ended after midnight Saturday, and Mr. Sadler said officials had no plans to search the buildings again. The authorities have not indicated any plans to search other ministry locations.
Sunday afternoon, a van ferried members back and forth from a nearby 15-acre compound to the church on U.S. 71. Two women, one pushing a stroller, entered the building with several children.
The United States attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, Bob Balfe, declined to comment when asked whether an arrest warrant had been issued for Mr. Alamo or other members of his church. Mr. Balfe said before the raid that he expected a warrant to be issued for Mr. Alamo, 74.
Mr. Alamo and his wife, Susan, were street preachers along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1966 before forming a commune near Saugus, Calif. Susan Alamo died of cancer in 1982; Mr. Alamo claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while their followers prayed.
Mr. Alamo was convicted of tax-related charges in 1994 after the Internal Revenue Service said he owed the government $7.9 million. He served four years in prison. Prosecutors in the tax case argued before sentencing that Mr. Alamo was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and girls.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups, describes Mr. Alamo’s ministry as a cult that opposes homosexuality, Catholicism and the government.
This article was found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/22raid.html?ref=todayspaper
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