Evangelist is convicted in sex-abuse case

TEXARKANA, Ark. — A prosecution relying on decade-old memories and a jury dealing with a century-old morality law could have given evangelist Tony Alamo a chance to walk away from sex-crime charges.

The five women he took as underage "wives" when they were as young as 8 didn't let that happen.

Jurors cried with the women through their testimony, listening as they related how Alamo told them God commanded them to be his sexual partners. They did not falter under cross-examination, staring down the man who took their childhood and exploited their faith.

"I just don't want him to hurt anybody else," the woman Alamo took as a "bride" at age 8 said on the stand, weeping. "I don't want him to touch my little sister. She's only 12."

As he was convicted Friday of all 10 charges against him, Alamo stood silently, a contrast to his occasional mutterings during testimony. He is set to be sentenced in six to eight weeks.

Alamo, 74, faces a total of 175 years in prison for violating the Mann Act, a law originally aimed at stopping women from being sold into prostitution. Each count also carries possible fines of $250,000.

"I'm just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel," Alamo yelled as U.S. marshals escorted him back to jail. Shouts of "Bye, bye, Bernie" — Alamo was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman — came from a crowd gathered to watch.

The five women, now 17 to 33, told jurors Alamo "married" them in private ceremonies while they were minors, sometimes giving them wedding rings. Each detailed trips beyond Arkansas' borders for Alamo's sexual gratification.

With little physical evidence, prosecutors relied on the women's stories to paint an emotional portrait of a charismatic religious leader who controlled every aspect of his subjects' lives. No one obtained food, clothing or transportation without Alamo knowing about it.

Jurors were convinced by the testimony that Alamo kept the girls as sexual partners, not office workers as his defense team claimed.

"That was the evidence. That was proven," said jury foreman Frank Oller of Texarkana, Ark.

Defense lawyer Don Ervin called the evidence against Alamo "insufficient" and said the preacher would appeal.

State and federal agents raided Alamo's compound last Sept. 20 after repeated reports of abuse.

Alamo founded the ministry with his wife, Susan, in the 1960s. It was built on the backs of followers who worked in various businesses to support the church. In the 1980s, he designed and sold elaborately decorated denim jackets, hobnobbed with celebrities and owned a compound in western Arkansas.

After Susan Alamo's death in 1982, Alamo began focusing on bashing Catholicism and the Vatican. Testimony showed he began taking multiple wives in the early 1990s and "married" a 15-year-old in 1994. From there, the girls became younger and younger.