By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader publisher
With all the economic problems around us, you may not have noticed that the imprisoned evangelist Tony Alamo is about to go to trial on child-abuse charges.
Maybe you didn’t even know he was in prison again or that he has fired his lawyer and hired a new one who has made a name for himself defending accused child abusers like Alamo.
The Associated Press had a bombshell of a story last week informing us that Alamo’s new lawyer thinks Tony is too old and decrepit to have sex with underage girls.
The disgraced evangelist, who is 74, is accused of transporting young girls across state lines and taking them to motel rooms out West. He was caught with a couple of them last year, but who are you going to believe: Your lying eyes or an honest country preacher like Alamo?
California lawyer Danny Davis told the AP that poor eyesight and diminishing physical powers would make it difficult for Alamo to molest little girls.
Facing a 10-count federal indictment for transporting young girls across state lines for sex, Alamo remains in prison and is scheduled to go to trial in May.
“If the sexual act is impossible, the intent may be highly doubtful,’’ Davis pointed out to the AP. You have to wonder if Davis will put Alamo in the witness chair and try to convince the jury his client is all talk and no action.
After all, Tony has claimed he’s an honest-to-goodness bigamist, but maybe he didn’t really mean it.
Davis, whose office is in Beverly Hills, years ago defended Alamo in another molestation case, but it wasn’t tried because he went to prison for tax evasion.
Davis was one of the attorneys in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case, where his client was eventually acquitted.
He may be a good lawyer, but I was sorry to see Alamo has dumped John Wesley Hall Jr. as his attorney. Hall was ready to try the case, but maybe Alamo thought he needed a high-profile attorney to save him from prison for life.
Alamo doesn’t want to die behind bars, but if he’s convicted, he’ll get out of prison in a casket.
Davis will almost certainly ask for more time to prepare for the trial.
