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chloe
11-13-2009, 02:34 PM
Evangelist sentenced to 175 years for sex crimes
By JON GAMBRELL, AP

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Evangelist Tony Alamo was sentenced Friday to 175 years in prison for taking underage girls across state lines for sex, effectively punishing him for the rest of his life for molesting children he took as "brides" in his ministry.

During Friday's hearing, some of Alamo's victims testified about how their families were destroyed while the evangelist took over their lives.

Alamo, 75, had been convicted in July on a 10-count federal indictment. U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes said Alamo used his status as father figure and pastor and threatened and threatened the girls with "the loss of their salvation."

"Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher a greater judge than me, may he have mercy on your soul," Barnes said.

Just before Barnes sentenced Alamo, the evangelist offered a brief statement to the court praising God then later adding:

"I'm glad I'm me and not the deceived people in the world."

Alamo's lawyers said they planned to appeal Barnes' ruling. His defense offered a doctor who said he suffered from hardening arteries, diabetes, glaucoma and other health problems. However on cross-examination the doctor acknowledged he saw Alamo only once in 2004 and that the purpose of Alamo's visit was to get an eye lift to make him appear younger.

The evangelist will stay in Texarkana pending a Jan. 13 hearing in which Barnes will decide whether Alamo's victims will get restitution from him. After that hearing, Barnes said Alamo would go to a federal prison that has hospital facilities.

A woman Alamo took as a child "bride" at age 8 challenged the evangelist from the witness stand Friday to submit himself to God's judgment. Reading from lined notebook paper, she said Alamo tore her family apart by taking her as a child bride and described how she shook uncontrollably when he first molested her.

"You preyed on innocent children," she said staring down Alamo, who wore yellow prison scrubs and a windbreaker for the hearing.

"You have the audacity to ask for mercy. What mercy did you show us?" she said.

A moment later she asked, "What kind of man of God does what you have done?"

The woman told Barnes that she planned to become an FBI agent in order to help other child sex abuse victims.

Two other child brides testified. One, who said she is now employed full-time and has a life of her own outside of the ministry, said she hoped Alamo would spend the rest of his life in jail.

"Maybe the real God, not the God you made up, will have mercy on your soul," the woman said.

Barnes said there was ample evidence that Alamo engaged in a pattern of molesting younger and younger girls in his ministry.

Alamo accused his victims of lying, as he has done throughout his prosecution.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7JRsIm1DgSBIfIFSL3D_fjT1HmwD9BUPI082

Insein
11-13-2009, 03:49 PM
This is the kind of person that needs to be locked away from society. Too bad it took till he was 75. As for the girls, good for them. Most stories you read like this show girls that give up on life and blame it all on the destructive childhood they had. These girls have refused to let it affect them. One even wanting to be an FBI Agent. Thats courage.

Jeff
11-13-2009, 03:51 PM
He should of put down like a rabid dog, why should we have to pay to keep him alive till he dies

Insein
11-13-2009, 03:53 PM
With the current legal system, the years of appeals would actually cost more than locking him away forever.

chloe
11-13-2009, 03:57 PM
This is the kind of person that needs to be locked away from society. Too bad it took till he was 75. As for the girls, good for them. Most stories you read like this show girls that give up on life and blame it all on the destructive childhood they had. These girls have refused to let it affect them. One even wanting to be an FBI Agent. Thats courage.

Im sure it still effects them, but yeah they are choosing to move forward in life. Still, just because you can't get over what happened to you doesn't mean you are blaming it all on your destructive childhood, some things do destroy people when they are just a little kid and a man wrecks them in not only a sexual way but also a spiritual way, those kind of ways that are hard to reconcile because of the isolation it creates spiritually & physically, but yeah I'm glad they testified and are able to move forward productively.

Jeff
11-14-2009, 12:24 AM
With the current legal system, the years of appeals would actually cost more than locking him away forever.

Yes you are correct, but it really stinks we should pay either

Luna Tick
11-15-2009, 02:12 PM
I don't get it. Why did he take them across state lines? Isn't it illegal to have sex with them regardless of what state he's in?

chloe
11-15-2009, 02:45 PM
I don't get it. Why did he take them across state lines? Isn't it illegal to have sex with them regardless of what state he's in?

I would think it is illegal when the child is 8 years old no matter what state. Perhaps he was well known in his community and went across state lines where people didn't know him so he could getaway with raping children. It doesn't list court transcripts in the article. So I don't know.