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In this Thursday, July 23, 2009 file photo, evangelist Tony Alamo talks to reporters as he is escorted to a waiting police car outside the Federal Court House in Texarkana, Ark. Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and became an outfitter of the stars, was convicted Friday of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex. (AP)
On Friday, an Arkansas jury found evangelist Tony Alamo guilty of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex.
Alamo, 74, was arrested in September after his 15-acre Texarkana, Arkansas compound was raided.
Authorities alleged Alamo transported five girls younger than 18 across state lines for sex between Mar. 1994 and Oct. 2005. The girls who filed the complaints, two of whom were 17 and one 14, all said Alamo sexually abused them.
Alamo, whose actual name is Bernie Hoffman, called the accusations a hoax in a phone interview with CNN and denied any type of wrongdoing. “They’re just trying to make our church look evil… by saying I’m a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children… I love children. I don’t abuse them. Never have. Never will,” said Alamo.
During the interview he was asked why authorities were searching his property and he responded, “Why were they after Jesus? It’s the same reason. Jesus is living within me.”
Alamo faces a maximum of 100 years in prison for his crimes.
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