Forbes - Associated Press June 3, 2011
2 ex-ministry members get $33 million each in suit
By JEANNIE NUSS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A jury awarded two former members of imprisoned evangelist Tony Alamo's ministry $33 million each on Thursday in response to charges that Alamo ordered them to be beaten.
But Seth Calagna, 21, and Spencer Ondirsek, 20, likely will not see payouts from the judgment anytime soon, said Alamo's attorney John Wesley Hall Jr.
"Tony Alamo Christian Ministries doesn't have that kind of money," he said. "Never has. Never will."
The jury in Texarkana, Ark., deliberated for about two hours before they returned with a verdict in the civil suit, which alleges that Alamo ordered another man, John Kolbek, to beat the young men while they were raised on the ministry's compound in southwest Arkansas.
The jury found Alamo liable for battery, outrage and conspiracy and awarded Calagna and Ondirsek $30 million each in punitive damages, plus another $3 million each to compensate them for past injuries and mental anguish. In comparison, a federal judge ruled last year that five young women whom Alamo sexually assaulted and took as "wives" were entitled to $500,000 each.
Calagna and Ondirsek were previously awarded $1.5 million each from Kolbek after he failed to respond to their lawsuit. They haven't collected any of that money yet, their attorney, W. David Carter of Texarkana, Texas, said. Kolbek died in January.
But Carter said he plans to search for properties on which he can collect the awards from both Kolbek and Alamo.
"We're going to look far and wide to see what properties might be available to pay the judgment," Carter said. "Whatever we find we will execute on."
Alamo's attorney called the sums awarded "outlandish" and said he plans to ask a federal judge to reduce the amounts. He also likely will appeal the verdict.
"It's a long way from being over," Hall said.
Hall had argued that the Bible condones corporal punishment. He wanted to tell jurors about Arkansas law regarding corporal punishment that was on the books when the alleged beatings occurred. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry A. Bryant disagreed and didn't include Hall's instructions, part of which were to read: "The fact there was bruising does not make corporal punishment unreasonable. If you find that corporal punishment was reasonably applied and was not excessive, then your verdict should be for Tony Alamo and against Spencer Ondrisek and Seth Calagna."
Hall also said that Thursday's verdict means he'll likely have to file for a change of venue in other cases involving Alamo's ministry.
"It's apparent that Tony Alamo can't get a fair trial in that community," Hall said.
Alamo, whose real name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, is serving a 175-year term in federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. He did not appear in federal court for the civil trial because it was too expensive to transport him to Texarkana.
His wife, Sharon, and Calagna's mother, Barbara Calagna, were among several witnesses to testify on his behalf.
Calagna's mother, Barbara Calagna, said the spankings were the best thing to ever happen to her son.
Calagna's attorney disagreed.
"Seth's mother's testimony is a prime example of how blindly people will follow Tony Alamo when they believe he's a prophet of God," Carter said. "She turned her back on her own son and allowed him to be beaten savagely on numerous occasions."
Beyond compensating the two young men, Carter said the suit was designed to prevent other people from following in Alamo's footsteps.
"It's intended to send a message not only to Alamo but to anyone else who might manipulate scripture in an attempt to control others for their own advantage," Carter said.
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Cult Leader Alamo Still Ministering from Prison
ReplyDeleteBY HALLIE COOK, COC COUGAR NEWS December 12, 2011
Commuters pass it every day on their way to work. Neighbors have reported odd sightings and have been threatened for getting too close. Vans come and go two or three times a day. There is 24-hour security and large white fences that block the view of the housing complex near the highway.
Up Sierra Highway past Davenport Road in Agua Dulce sits the storied Tony Alamo Christian Church.
The church was deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its anti-Catholic teachings.
Rumors of brainwashing and polygamy have surrounded the ministry since its establishment in the 1960s. Its founder, 77-year-old Tony Alamo, was sentenced Nov. 13, 2009, to 175 years in prison for trafficking underage girls across state lines for sex.
A call to the church hotline reveals: “Pastor Alamo is currently serving the ministries from prison, writing scripture and sending it here to us, along with providing salvation for the terrorists and murderers in prison with him.”
Public records list Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Inc. as the owner of the property where the church complex is located. The company also owns a parcel of land and some houses behind the Halfway House Café, farther down Sierra Highway.
The company was founded and run by Tony Alamo, and it is the name most of his properties are under today.
Public records also show the property is managed by Rodi Pollock Pettker Galbraith, a Los Angeles law firm. Company officials refused to comment about their involvement with Tony Alamo and his businesses.
Locals describe it as a suspicious place. No one knows what is going on behind closed doors, except for the religious followers.
Neighbors report that vans pass by the Halfway House at least once a day at around the same time, but the property looks to be vacant with the exception of a standard-looking white Ford van and an old station wagon. Blinds in all of the houses are drawn, and there is no movement or noise.
Waitress Sally Moore reports witnessing strange things since she started working at the Halfway House.
“My son used to play with some of the kids who lived back there,” said Moore, 50. “All of them were home-schooled and I never saw any girls, only teenage boys.”
Although her son never reported any strange occurrences, Moore never let him enter any of the Alamo homes.
“About a year ago a young girl ‘escaped’ with a man,” she said. “They sat in the corner of the café for about an hour to wait for a taxi. Another middle-aged man showed up and tried to convince the girl to come back to say goodbye to the rest of the people at the complex. In the middle of a heavy rainstorm, the two people went outside to wait for the cab, arguing with the middle-aged man until they finally left.”
Twenty-four hour security keeps watch over people entering or exiting church property.
Lauren Weightman, 21, of Agua Dulce, was riding a quad one day on the mountains behind her house, which sits near the back of the church property. She ran out of gas and continued to walk down the mountain to meet someone who had brought her gas for the quad.
“A man popped out of the bushes,” she said. “I didn’t hear him coming, so it scared me. He told me to get off the church’s property because I was trespassing. I thought it was weird he was out in the middle of nowhere.”
Neighbors report séances held at the late hours of the night. ...
...
Victims have come forward to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show to share their stories of Alamo and the hellish environment he created.
Victims told Winfrey they were made to be Alamo’s “spiritual wives” at the tender ages of 8 to 12. They said they were sexually assaulted, drugged and beaten by Alamo until they escaped.
...
Alamo’s lawyers have indicated they plan to appeal his verdict and to prove his innocence.
read the full article at:
http://scvnews.com/?p=23130
Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal Of Alamo Ministry’s Civil Suit
ReplyDeleteBy John Lyon Booneville Democrat January 12, 2012
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a judge’s order dismissing a lawsuit filed by Tony Alamo Christian Ministries over the removal of children from its compound in 2008.
The 8th U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis said U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes was right to dismiss the suit, which alleged violations of the ministry’s constitutional rights, because the suit would have interfered with state proceedings that at the time were still ongoing.
At least 36 children were removed from the ministry’s compound in Fouke and placed in foster care. Officials with the state Department of Human Services said the children were the victims of physical and sexual abuse, including forced marriages between underage children and adults.
Alamo was sentenced in November 2009 to 175 years in prison on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex.
The ministry and two church members, Albert Ralph Krantz and Gregory Scott Seago, filed a lawsuit alleging that DHS officials violated their constitutional rights, including their First Amendment right to freedom of religious expression and their Fourth Amendment right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
Barnes dismissed the suit in February 2010. The ministry, but not the individual plaintiffs, filed an appeal, and on Wednesday a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit said it agreed with Barnes’ ruling.
The appeals court said the U.S. Supreme Court has established, in its 1971 ruling in Younger v. Harris, that federal courts must abstain from considering any civil claims brought by plaintiffs who are being prosecuted at the state level for matters related to their claims.
Barnes had cited Younger v. Harris only in regard to the individual plaintiffs and had dismissed the ministry’s claims because he said the ministry lacked standing. The ministry argued on appeal that it did have standing, but the 8th Circuit said Wednesday that the abstention rule set forth in Younger v. Harris was equally applicable to the ministry, so the issue of standing was irrelevant.
“Abstention applies to TACM because it alleges standing based on injuries that are either directly or indirectly derivative of those of the individual plaintiffs,” Judge Susan Nelson, a U.S. district judge from Minnesota specially appointed to hear the case along with two 8th Circuit judges, wrote in the opinion.
The appeals court also said the constitutional arguments in the federal lawsuit have been raised by members of the ministry in state court proceedings, including by Krantz and Seago, and state courts have rejected those arguments.
In April 2011, the state Supreme Court affirmed several circuit court decisions terminating various church members’ parental rights, including those of Krantz and Seago. The appeals court acknowledged Wednesday that the state proceedings apparently were concluded at that point, but it said they were still ongoing when Barnes dismissed the federal lawsuit in 2010, so the judge ruled appropriately.
The appeals court also rejected the ministry’s argument that the state seized the children as an act of harassment and intimidation. Given that the state Supreme Court upheld the children’s removal and the termination of church members’ parental rights, the argument was not plausible, the 8th Circuit said.
Joining Nelson in the opinion were 8th Circuit Judges James Loken and Steven Colloton.
http://www.boonevilledemocrat.com/articles/2012/01/12/news/news08.txt