Six Children in State Custody After FBI Raids an Arkansas Religious Compound
LEMON: We want to update you on a disturbing story we first broke last night here on CNN. Six children from a religious compound in Arkansas are now in temporary custody of State Child Welfare officials. State and federal authorities arrived at the property last night just before sundown. The allegations that prompted the raid were chilling.</s>LEMON (voice-over): This is the third time federal and state police have raided one of Tony Alamo's Christian Ministries compound. The FBI says this latest operation in southwest Arkansas follows a two-year investigation into possible child pornography.</s>TOM BROWN, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: State investigation is aimed at allegations that children living at the Alamo facilities may have been sexually and physically abused.</s>LEMON: Authorities have not disclosed how many children live in the compound. Owner and Minister Tony Alamo denies any wrongdoing. CNN reached him by phone in Los Angeles.</s>LEMON: Why would they just make up these allegations against you, Mr. Alamo?</s>ALAMO: Why did they make up allegations against Jesus and nailed him to the cross? They will not find any pornography there. There is none. There never was any. And there's the child abuse or child pornography or anything like that. They are barking up the wrong tree, this time.</s>LEMON: Alamo has not been charged. But one U.S. attorney told the Associated Press he expects a warrant to be issued for him in the coming days. The arrest wouldn't be the first for the religious leader. Alamo and his group have a long history of legal troubles. Alamo was arrested in Tampa, Florida, in July 1991, charged with threatening a federal judge in Arkansas who ruled against Alamo in a child custody case. He was later acquitted of the charges. That same year, six former followers were awarded $1.8 million for violations of federal labor laws for their work in one of Alamo's businesses. Alamo eventually spent four years in prison from 1994 to 1998 for tax evasion. Alamo has been praised by some, criticized by others.</s>LYNN LAROWE, "TEXARKANA GAZETTE": It's not very rare to come out of any baseball game or whatever and find Alamo literature on your car. Now, as to his popularity, there are quite a few people around here with whom he isn't so popular. You know, the people who live on his compound and the people who attend his church, he is, but around here he is an extremely controversial figure.</s>LEMON: Some critics regard his ministry as a cult.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe in my heart that the compound in Texas, it was right. It is no worse than this compound here.</s>LEMON: Investigators are not saying what they found inside of the compound. And the fate of the children who call the property home is still a mystery.</s>LEMON: No formal charges have been filed in that case. Out of the sky and into a suburban Wisconsin house.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard what sounded like thunder, all right, there was a big boom. It was obvious to me something hit us. I thought it was lightning.</s>LEMON: A helicopter crashes the neighborhood.