Cult leader, Alamo, against lawyer's advice, says he will testify in his sex abuse trial

Google News - Associated Press July 21, 2009

Alamo: 'I'm going to testify' in sex crimes trial

By JON GAMBRELL (AP)

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Evangelist Tony Alamo walked into court Tuesday and told reporters he planned to take the stand in his sex-crime trial, even though his lawyers have advised against it.

"I'm going to testify. I've already won. They've got nothing," the 74-year-old Alamo said.



FILE - In this Friday July 17, 2009 file photo, evangelist Tony Alamo is led from the federal courthouse in downtown Texarkana, Ark. (AP Photo/Texarkana Gazette, Tanner Spendley, file)

Prosecutors will likely rest their case Tuesday. They plan to play for jurors recordings of jailhouse telephone calls the preacher made since his arrest on charges that he took underage girls across state lines for sex.

Then it will be the defense's turn and their biggest liability might be their client.

Defense attorneys face a skeptical jury and the likelihood that Alamo will choose to testify even though they've advised him not to. Defense lawyer Phillip Kuhn said Alamo's team planned to call as many as 10 witnesses. Whether that will include Alamo remains to be seen, Kuhn said.

"If he gets on the witness stand, it will be against my advice," Kuhn said Monday.

In court Monday, the evangelist blurted out a reference to the raid on the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas. The outburst came as defense lawyers argued whether an FBI agent could say he worried about the safety of Alamo's followers after a Sept. 20 raid on Alamo's Arkansas compound.

"After Waco, they are looking for safety too, from the FBI," Alamo interjected from the defense table, referencing the Branch Davidian religious compound in Texas that federal agents stormed in 1993. Leader David Koresh and dozens of followers died as the complex burned.

Kuhn said after the hearing that U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes heard the comment.

"The judge asked me to ask him to cool it," Kuhn said.

But as Alamo left the courthouse in prison scrubs, he remained visibly upset.

"The FBI likes to burn Christians," Alamo told reporters. "I should be putting them on trial, not them on me. They're guilty."

Alamo's followers set up a Twitter account in his name over the weekend and referenced a statement on his Web site deriding the FBI as "demonic."

Jurors heard last week from the five former followers who say Alamo abused them as girls. In graphic testimony, they said that they traveled to California, Tennessee and West Virginia for sex with their pastor or responded to his call and returned to Arkansas from out of state and had sex with him.

Each count in the indictment is punishable by 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This article was found at:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7JRsIm1DgSBIfIFSL3D_fjT1HmwD99IRM282