LITTLE ROCK — A lawsuit filed by six former members of the southwest Arkansas-based Tony Alamo Christian Ministries should be dismissed because the allegations it contains are too general, an attorney said in a court filing Monday.
The lawsuit, filed in August by former church members Desiree Kolbeck, Amy Eddy, Jeannette Orlando, Summer Hagan, Jamie Rodriguez and Nicole Farr, accuses church members and church-controlled businesses of failing to protect girls from abuse by the church’s leader, Tony Alamo.
Alamo, 76, is serving a 175-year prison sentence after being convicted last year of 10 counts of taking underage girls across state lines for sex.
He is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Representing church members Sally Demoulin and Sharon Alamo and the businesses and organizations named as defendants, attorney John Wesley Hall Jr. of Little Rock said in the motion Monday that the lawsuit “is full of generalities without real facts” and fails to give sufficient detail about how his clients failed to protect the girls.
Hall also questioned allegations that the organizations and businesses were “negligent in the employment, supervision and retention” of Alamo. He noted that, during the criminal trial, several witnesses testified that Alamo controlled all of the ministry’s operations.
“How can plaintiffs testify back in July 2009 that Tony Alamo controlled everything, but then plead here that others were negligent ...?” Hall wrote.
Another defendant, church member Steve Johnson, filed a motion last week asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Responses to the motions had not been filed Monday.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/23/2010