LITTLE ROCK — A judge on Monday reopened a lawsuit over thousands of Tempur-Pedic mattresses that the manufacturer says were illegally diverted to a company affiliated with the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.
Tempur-Pedic International filed the lawsuit in 2007 over the mattresses that it said it gave to a New Jersey nonprofit to be distributed to victims of Hurricane Katrina and others in need. It says 3,500 of the mattresses ended up in a Booneville warehouse owned by members of the Alamo ministry.
Proceedings in the casewere put on hold in 2008 after three defendants filed for bankruptcy.
In his order reopening the case, U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson noted that the bankruptcies have been resolved.
Dawson directed the parties in the case to hold a status conference March 8 and report to him March 22.
Tony Alamo, 78, the leader of the ministry with branches in Fouke, Fort Smith and California, was convicted in 2009 of taking five underage girls across state lines for sex in violation of the federal Mann Act and was sentenced to 175 years in prison.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 02/06/2013