Fouke News

Federal agents say they will increase security at a federal courthouse for jailed evangelist Tony Alamo's upcoming trial. Johnny Larkin of the U.S. Marshal Service says the court has received no threats yet. However, court officials asked reporters on Thursday to not publish photographs of Judge Harry F. Barnes during the course of the trial. Federal agents say the security concerns comes from Alamo's previous trial on a charge that he threatened a federal judge that ruled against him in a series of cases.

Tony Alamo’s defense team has filed a motion requesting the U.S. Government be prohibited from mentioning polygamy or cult activity during his criminal trial on sex abuse charges. “The evidence of multiple relationships with numerous females has a propensity to hit a nerve in some jurors and the chance is great the defendant will be the subject of jury retribution,” the motion said. References to “cult activity” don’t prove Alamo had sex with underage girls while transporting them across state lines as he is accused, the motion argued.

Prosecutors and the attorney general argue the subpoenas are flawed and that the law doesn’t permit the depositions. In addition to giving Harris and Bishop too little notice, the requests can’t be honored because federal and state statutes prevent law enforcement officers from discussing a pending criminal case, the motions argued. The subpoenas also contained multiple errors and references to outdated law, the motions state.

Motions filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Arkansas Attorney General ask a federal judge to deny a request from Tony Alamo Christian Ministries to take the depositions of an FBI agent and Arkansas State Police sergeant. Earlier this week the ministry’s attorney, Phillip Kuhn, served subpoenas on the law officers that also asked them to produce notes, recordings and other documents associated with the criminal investigation of Tony Alamo on sex abuse charges.

Federal prosecutors want Fed Judge Barnes to stop the requested deposition of an FBI agent in a lawsuit by the Tony Alamo Ministries. Prosecutors say the FBI agent who handled the investigation of jailed evangelist Tony Alamo can't be made to testify in a suit brought by his ministry against Arkansas' child-welfare agency. Prosecutors say federal rules prevent the agent from testifying, and the planned deposition comes only days before Alamo is scheduled to stand trial on a 10-count federal indictment.

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“This is the type of offense that involves not only physical and sexual abuse but also involves significant emotional abuse,” the government’s response to the defense request for informant identities said. “In assessing this particular factor, the court should consider that the involvement of juveniles requires the court to be particularly cautious in ordering the disclosure of their identities, as they are especially vulnerable and subject to intimidation.”

Little Rock - Federal prosecutors are refusing to name two confidential informants who provided information to the FBI about jailed evangelist Tony Alamo. Prosecutors refused the request in a filing Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes. Prosecutors say Alamo's lawyers failed to offer a convincing reason to name the informants, who offered information that led to a raid on his southwest Arkansas compound. Prosecutors also hint that those informants may be underage girls sexually or physically abused by the 74-year-old evangelist.

Benito Catello is being held in CCDC right now. He was booked on at least 29 counts, including sexual assault, sexual assault on a victim under fourteen years old, and lewdness with a minor under fourteen. Catello is 75. He ran The Ministry, a church out of his home near Owens and Mount Hood, which is in the northeast part of Las Vegas. If convicted, Catello could be done for good. He could spend the rest of his life in prison.

TEXARKANA - A search warrant for Tony Alamo Christian Ministries property based on years-old information wasn't "fatally stale" because pedophiles typically keep incriminating photos of their victims for a long time, according to a document filed Thursday by federal prosecutors.

"Several courts have adopted the proposition that pedophiles typically demonstrate the propensity to hoard and collect items of child pornography," according to the government's response to a defense motion to suppress evidence collected during a September 2008 raid of ministry property at Fouke in Miller County.

“The information from the first three informants, who were all under the age of 18, comes from their own personal knowledge as victims of the defendant’s criminal activity. All three of these informants related information regarding the defendant’s production and possession of child pornography,” the government’s response said. “In addition ... one of the confidential sources of information related that there were as many as eight underage girls living in the home that was the subject of the search in this case.”

The Human Services Department says ministry children are endangered by practices that include allowing underage marriages and beatings for violations of church rules. Tony Alamo, the ministry's 74-year-old leader, is awaiting trial on charges that he transported five underage girls across state lines for sex from March 1994 through October 2005. Contending that the ministry is merely trying to circumvent child-welfare proceedings in Miller County Circuit Court, the Human Services Department asked Barnes to dismiss the lawsuit.

Tony Alamo Christian Ministries has 45 days to offer evidence in federal court supporting an assertion that the Arkansas Department of Human Services acted in “bad faith” in state custody proceedings. If the ministry’s lawyer, Phillip Kuhn of Florida, can convince U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes that DHS is using a child abuse investigation as a front to disband the controversial church, the suit will continue.

AlamoTony Alamo’s defense team filed motions Tuesday asking the court to keep evidence collected during September’s raid on ministry properties out of his criminal trial next month. The defense also wants the names of informants who allegedly provided officials with incriminating information about the controversial evangelist.

The lawsuit accuses state officials of persecuting the evangelist's followers. It seeks to bar the state from seizing other children associated with the ministry. It also asks a judge to stop the state from forcing parents to leave the church in order to regain custody of their children.

Prosecutors refused to turn over locations of anyone with knowledge of the jailed evangelist’s alleged crimes, saying that “the government has no duty to conduct the defendant’s investigation.” Don Ervin, a Houston lawyer representing Alamo, did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has filed a response to one of six motions filed recently by Tony Alamo’s defense team. Late Friday, the government filed a document indicating it will comply by July 6 with a defense request to be notified of any deals made with witnesses who will testify against the accused evangelist. Jury selection is scheduled to begin July 13 before U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes. Besides the motion for the government to reveal witness agreements, the defense also filed three other motions June 19.

AlamoTony Alamo’s defense team filed motions Tuesday asking the court to keep evidence collected during September’s raid on ministry properties out of his criminal trial next month. The defense also wants the names of informants who allegedly provided officials with incriminating information about the controversial evangelist.

Little Rock - Evidence seized during a raid on jailed evangelist Tony Alamo's southwest Arkansas compound shouldn't be used at his upcoming trial on sex charges because a judge granted the search warrant using outdated information, his lawyers argue in new court filings. Lawyers claim the search warrant signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry A. Bryant failed to consider that witness statements given to the FBI involved alleged sex acts from as far back as eight years earlier.

Story killed, reposted with photograph for reader content interest. Duplicate posted in error.

The defense wants to know which state lines were crossed, the exact manner in which Alamo allegedly broke the law and specific dates and times instead of ranges of months. “The superseding indictment further fails to state the names of all persons allegedly involved, including those whom allegedly aided and abetted defendant .. ,” the motion said. “Defendant has no notice of whether he is the alleged actor in each count and others are alleged to have aided and abetted him ... or whether he is alleged to have aided and abetted others in the commission of any alleged offense.”