Six children have been placed in temporary state custody in the wake of a raid on a church compound as part of a child-porn investigation, Arkansas police said today.
The children will be under the care of the state Department of Human Services during the interviews, said state police spokesman Bill Sadler. He didn't say how long the interviews would last.
More than 100 federal and state police raided the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in the small south-western Arkansas town of Fouke yesterday as part of a two-year investigation into child abuse and pornography allegations against convicted tax evader Tony Alamo.
"Should there be any long-term separation of the children from the Alamo property, a local court will make the determination as to the status of those children," Sadler said.
He did not say how old the children were, but an email that authorities inadvertently sent to media members last week referred to 12-, 13- and 14-year-old girls.
The search ended after midnight, and Sadler said officials had no plans to search the buildings again. The group planned to hold its regularly scheduled church services tonight in a former grocery store on the 6-hectare complex.
Alamo, described by prosecutors in his tax evasion case as a polygamist who preys on girls and women, has denied involvement in pornography.
US Attorney Bob Balfe declined to comment when asked whether an arrest warrant had been issued for Alamo or other members of his church. Balfe said before the raid he expected a warrant to be issued for the leader.
The raid started an hour before sunset. Armed guards regularly patrol the headquarters, but there was no resistance as agents moved in, state police said.
Social workers interviewed children who live at the complex, which critics call a cult. The investigation involves a law that prohibits the transportation of children across state lines for criminal activity, said Tom Browne, who runs the FBI office in Little Rock.
In a phone call to AP yesterday from a friend's house in the Los Angeles area, Alamo denied being involved in pornography.
"We don't go into pornography; nobody in the church is into that," said Alamo.
"Where do these allegations stem from? The anti-Christ government. The Catholics don't like me because I have cut their congregation in half. They hate true Christianity."
Alamo and his late wife Susan were street preachers along Hollywood's Sunset Strip in 1966 before forming a commune near Saugus, California. Susan Alamo died of cancer in 1982; Alamo claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while their followers prayed.
In 1988, following a raid near Santa Ana, California, three boys whose mothers were Alamo followers were placed in the custody of their fathers.
Justin Miller, then 11, told police Alamo directed four men to strike him 140 times with a wooden paddle as punishment for minor offences.
Alamo was later charged with child abuse but prosecutors dropped the charge, citing a lack of evidence.
Alamo was convicted of tax-related charges in 1994 after the IRS said he owed the government $US7.9 million. He served four years in prison.
Prosecutors in the tax case argued before sentencing that Alamo was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and girls in his congregation.
