Common-law wife of evangelist testifies in his defense

Tony Alamo, 74, is accused of taking five young girls across state lines for sex between 1994 and 1995 after purporting to marry them. Defense lawyers say prosecutors targeted him because the government is anti-Christian.

Alamo, who has pleaded not guilty, has also said the Vatican is behind his troubles.

Sharon Alamo, 50, acknowledged to jurors that she had seen young women wearing wedding rings around the house.

“Didn’t you notice [that] the girls moving into the defendant’s residence . . . were getting younger and younger?’’ Assistant US Attorney Clay Fowlkes asked.

“No, I didn’t,’’ she replied.

She said she believed that the collection of wedding rings found in Alamo’s bedroom were gifts to the ministry. Prosecution witnesses have testified that rings were given to underage girls when Alamo “married’’ them.

Sharon Alamo said she never formally married Alamo but lives with him, took his name, and conducted business as his wife. She also said she allowed Alamo to call her “a weasel, a rotten bastard, and a liar’’ to help him get his anger out.

“We were together for a while but decided to separate but still live and work together,’’ Sharon Alamo said. As she spoke, Alamo muttered to his lawyers, “They don’t understand it’s a spiritual marriage.’’

When Sharon Alamo stepped away from the stand, Tony Alamo turned and said, “Bye, baby.’’

Another witness - the mother of an 18-year-old woman who testified last week that she was “married’’ to Alamo at age 8 - spoke to jurors for 15 minutes before US District Judge Harry F. Barnes ordered her remarks stricken from the record.

The woman, a key aide to Alamo, refused to say where she had been since a Sept. 20 raid on his Arkansas compound. She has four underage children who are being sought by state welfare officials. She had told jurors she was “hiding from harassment’’ and that her daughter was “constantly trouble.’’ In the judge’s chambers, she claimed her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

Last week, the 18-year-old told jurors that her parents had interfered with her attempt to enter foster care in New Mexico by telling welfare officials that all was fine in Arkansas and that she was a liar.

Over four days of graphic testimony, five women said they “married’’ Alamo as teens or preteens and were sexually assaulted by him. They said they traveled to other states for sex with him or responded to his call and returned to Arkansas and had sex with him.

Sharon Alamo said from the stand that the trips with the girls were for legitimate church purposes.