Deputies Seize Three Boys Allegedly Held by Sect

Sheriff’s deputies acting on a court order raided two fundamentalist Christian communes in remote Saugus early Thursday and seized three boys allegedly being held “hostage” by the sect’s leader, Tony Alamo.

The boys are the subject of a bitter custody dispute between their fathers, who fled Alamo’s unorthodox church last September, saying they feared for their lives, and their mothers, who remain active members of the organization.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Owen ordered Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to seize the boys after their fathers, Robert Alan Miller, 36, and Corey Lee Miller, 34, made sworn statements that they feared the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation would try to take the children out of the country.

Owen placed the boys--Robert’s two sons, 9 and 4 years old, and Corey’s 11-year-old son--in their fathers’ custody pending an April 11 hearing.

Neither the Millers, who are brothers, nor the boys were available for comment, and their attorney, Sidney L. Radus, declined to elaborate on the case.

But court papers accuse Alamo of running a cult that exploited the Miller brothers and “brainwashed” their wives, and which now threatens their children with “physical and emotional abuse by the members and leaders” of the sect.

The children “are being held hostage to keep them and their mother under the domination and control of the Alamo foundation and Tony Alamo,” the papers said.

The papers said that the church issued “phony” divorce certificates for the mothers, Susan L. Miller and Carol Ann Miller, and remarried them to Alamo devotees.

The mothers did not attend the hearing because they are in New York with Alamo and their new husbands, selling clothing made at church workshops, foundation attorney Jack Kessler said.

Alamo, in a telephone interview, said the Miller brothers were traitors to his church who were using the court to exact revenge.

Alamo said the divorces were legitimate, and that he had married the women to two “really good, Christian young men.” He added that the church would pay legal bills for the women during the custody fight.

Alamo and his late wife, Susan, started preaching on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in 1966. They attracted numerous young followers and formed a commune in Saugus, which later moved to Arkansas. Recently they moved their headquarters back to California.

Alamo said that church “volunteers” pledge their earnings in exchange for their food, clothing and shelter.

In court papers, the Millers said they joined the group in Southern California in the early 1970s, and moved to its commune near Dyer, Ark.

After starting a profitable trucking business with his brother, Robert said in a court statement, “Tony Alamo, sole authority and head of our church, demanded full and complete control of our business and all of its assets, while leaving my brother and I liable for all debts.”

Without elaboration, Robert’s statement continues: “On Sept. 29, 1987, I was forced to flee from the commune . . . in fear of my life.