Web gets a peek at Alamo case

Texarkana Gazette - January 1, 2009

Girl’s confidential court documents placed on Internet

By Lynn LaRowe | Texarkana Gazette

A video of a 16-year-old girl speaking with a forensic interviewer the day after she was removed from Tony Alamo’s residence in Fouke, Ark., has been placed on the Internet. Filmed at the Child Advocacy Center in Texarkana, the video was intended only for use by law enforcement, the courts and child welfare officials.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services filed a motion late Wednesday afternoon to have the hosting Website, inquisitionupdate.org, remove the video and related material.

“The damage is already done,” said Julie Munsell, DHS director of communications. “This is a confidentiality issue. We want to protect these children. This is also preventive.”

According to the Website, the video, a letter signed with the girl’s mother’s name, photos and copies of court documents were handed over by the girl’s own parents. DHS wants a judge in Miller County to issue an order forbidding distribution of court documents and other evidence, such as video interviews, in the future.

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Wednesday, Circuit Judge Jim Hudson granted a motion filed by the girl’s parents and the father of another girl placed in foster care in September to have the court appoint lawyers at state expense to replace the ones Alamo Ministries hired to represent them during final custody hearings in November.

During those proceedings, lawyers representing the parents, Marshall Moore and David James of Texarkana, were provided with documents, videos and any other evidence DHS intended to use against them during custody proceedings as prescribed by law. That evidence might have then been available to the parents as well.

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In the interview video, the girl describes Alamo in glowing terms, denies he’s ever molested anyone and expresses a belief that natural disasters around the world are the work of God and a sign the end is near. She also denied ever having been abused.

“(The girl’s mother) stated, ‘I want John Kolbek to beat (the girl). (The girl) was no older than 12 years at the time of her beating. (The girl) was also beaten with a paddle when she was 14 years of age during one of three beatings which (her 18-year-old brother) suffered at the hands of John Kolbek at the direction of Tony Alamo,” said the adjudication order Hudson wrote following final custody hearings for the girl and one other Nov. 21.

John Kolbek is wanted by federal and state officials. In Sebastian County in Arkansas, he faces a charge of second-degree battery in connection with the alleged beating of Seth Calagna, an 18-year-old former Alamo follower. Calagna was allegedly beaten with a 6-foot-long wooden paddle that allegedly left him bloody and bruised. Federal officials have issued a warrant for Kolbek’s arrest for unlawful flight from prosecution.

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In the video, the girl said she believes girls should be able to marry when they reach puberty. “That’s when your body’s able to have children. Why would God make it that way if you weren’t supposed to?” the girl said.

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Hudson’s Nov. 21 ruling included a plan for reunification if the parents would agree to sever economic, residential and employment ties with the church.

“The court finds that (the parents) provide valuable services to Tony Alamo Ministries, on average 40 hours per week. Though the parents state this is voluntary, the Tony Alamo Ministries, in effect, provide room, board, and all living expenses to (the parents),” said Hudson’s order signed Wednesday granting the parents permission to use lawyers from the Arkansas Public Defender’s Commission in future proceedings.

“(The parents) were provided legal services for the trial of this matter by the Tony Alamo Ministries in an amount between $17,000 and $20,000 but that group has refused to pay any of the parents’ expenses for an appeal,” Hudson’s order said.

“Today, they cannot retain appellate counsel or pay the costs of appeal. They can, and should be required to pay at least some legal expenses at the conclusion of this case.”

An appeal by the parents means a higher court will be asked to review the transcripts from Hudson’s court and determine if his ruling to keep the girls in foster care was just.

In his adjudication orders for the two girls assigned to his court, Hudson found as fact that Alamo directed beatings, engages in polygamy and that the church condones the “informal, invalid, marriages between children under the age of 16 to adult males over the age of 21, and in many instances decades older than the age of 21.”

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This article was found at:

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23116/tony-alamo-24