Imprisoned Cult Leader and Child Rapist Faces $66 Million Judgment
An Arkansas jury yesterday awarded $33 million to each of two men who were ordered beaten as teenagers by cult leader Tony Alamo 鈥� a man who is now serving a 175-year sentence for sexually as young as 8 years old and who has a long history of ordering brutal assaults on children.
Jurors were told that Seth Calagna, 21, and Spencer Ondirsek, 20, were beaten by the late John Kolbek on orders from Alamo while they were being raised on the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound in southwest Arkansas, . Alamo鈥檚 lawyer, however, said afterward that the ministry doesn鈥檛 have anything like the millions of dollars needed to pay the award.
The Alamo cult, which was described in a in the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 Intelligence Report, was violently anti-Catholic and anti-gay. But like many other personality cults, its most horrifying aspect was its abuse of children. The Report profile described, among other things, how 11-year-old Justin Miller was held down by four men and beaten bloody in 1988 on Alamo鈥檚 orders for a minor classroom infraction. Alamo was initially charged with felony child abuse, but he fled and the charges were dropped seven years later. Miller鈥檚 family sued and was awarded a judgment of $1.46 million in a federal court.
Alamo, whose real name is Bernie LaZar Hoffman, was in federal prison in late 2009. In addition, five women who said they were raped by him as children were awarded $500,000 each.
The hardball tactics of Alamo鈥檚 lawyer, John Wesley Hall Jr., raised some eyebrows during the most recent civil trial. In it, Hall argued that the Bible condones corporal punishment and that 鈥渢he fact there was bruising does not make corporal punishment unreasonable.鈥� Calgana鈥檚 mother, Barbara Calagna, also testified on behalf of Alamo in the trial, saying the beatings her son was subjected to were the best thing that ever happened to him. A prosecutor responded tartly that her testimony was 鈥渁 prime example of how blindly people will follow Tony Alamo when they believe he鈥檚 a prophet of God. She turned her back on her own son.鈥�
