ALAMO'S BACKERS PLAN TO REVAMP SAUGUS CHURCH.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

With fallen preacher Tony Alamo set for release from prison in less than a year, followers have plans to reopen his Saugus church headquarters - even as the property faces seizure to serve a court judgment.

Under building permits approved last month by Los Angeles County, members of Alamo's Twentieth Century Holiness Tabernacle Church are seeking to refurbish the Sierra Highway headquarters to accommodate 286 visitors.

Alamo is expected to be released from a federal penitentiary in June 1997 after serving a six-year term for a 1993 conviction on tax fraud. He already had been in custody for two years when convicted.

The move also comes as several former church members continue attempts to satisfy a $1.4 million judgment they won against Alamo in 1990 for ordering the paddling of an 11-year-old boy at the headquarters in 1988.

That judgment has resulted in the seizure of dozens of church properties in Tennessee and Arkansas, and spawned at least two federal lawsuits by Alamo followers to halt any more confiscations, including that of the Sierra Highway property.

Representatives of the church could not be reached for comment last week. Calls to the church's current headquarters in Alma, Ark., went unanswered, as did calls to an Alabama attorney who has represented Alamo.

Peter Georgiades, an attorney representing the former churchgoers who won the lawsuit, said that Alamo's followers will proceed with any renovations at their own risk.

``There are liens on that property. We can force the sale anytime we like, and we intend to do that,'' he said. ``I hope they spend $1 million renovating the property . . . We are going to proceed against it.''

In two federal lawsuits last year, Alamo followers charged that Georgiades and his clients were unjustly enriching themselves by seizing dozens of church properties, satisfying the $1.4 million judgment several times over.

However, Georgiades has claimed that Alamo's properties were encumbered by an assortment of other liens that drastically reduced their values. He said both lawsuits were later dismissed.

The plans, which are on file at the Valencia office of the Los Angeles County Division of Building and Safety, call for a 1,288-square-foot sanctuary and a 150-square-foot prayer room.

Richard Bagby, a building safety supervisor, said the permits allow the church to renovate the property, but it must pass a final inspection before it can be reoccupied. The permits are valid indefinitely.

The permits were taken out by the project's general contractor, Ramer Construction of Canyon Country. Owner Lee Ramer did not return telephone calls for comment.

Although Alamo, a talented clothing designer, became known in the 1980s for owning several chic boutiques that sold flashy western ware coveted by celebrities, the church originally drew notice for more traditional works.

During the 1970s, Alamo would counsel drug addicts and others down on their luck in Hollywood, and then bus them up to the Saugus complex, where he moved the church after first establishing it in Los Angeles.

Neighbor Ken Brenner, who has been critical of the church, said he was concerned to hear that permits were taken out.

``I know none of us are happy with it. I know they are going to go right back to what they were doing, and this area is just not suitable for it,'' he said.

Questions remain, however, just how robust the church would be.

Alamo has suffered dearly not only because of the judgment, but at the hands of the IRS. Last July it auctioned off 12,000 pieces of flashy western clothing seized from his former flagship clothing store in Nashville.

Valued at $2 million, the clothing brought in just 15 cents on the dollar, satisfying only $290,000 of the $2.2 million debt the IRS claims the preacher owes.

Among the celebrities who once sought his elaborate rhinestone-encrusted clothing and elaborate air-brushed leather and denim jackets were Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and a host of country-western stars.

The charismatic preacher's troubles began in 1988 when he was accused of ordering an 11-year-old boy paddled some 140 times. About the time he was about to be charged by county prosecutors, Alamo disappeared.

In April 1990, a federal judge in Fort Smith, Ark., awarded the boy, his father and other church members $1.4 million stemming from the beating and other allegations.

Alamo did not appear in court to contest the charges and was later accused of threatening the judge. He was arrested in Tampa, Fla., in July 1991 and was acquitted of making threats.

He was not so successful in his later trial on tax fraud charges, however, last March county prosecutors did agree to drop the child abuse charges that stemmed from the paddling. They said they were reluctant to have the boy now testify since he was a teen-ager and was getting on with his life.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: (color) Followers of Tony Alamo plan to reopen the T wentieth Century Holiness Tabernacle Church as a way of celebrating their preacher's 1997 release from prison.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News