Arkansas- from www.mystateline.com – Evangelist and convicted felon Tony Alamo’s third trial since he founded his ministry four decades ago begins today with jury selection.

Alamo is facing charges of sexually abusing children and having multiple wives.

Those charges could send him to prison for life.

The Evangelist is charged with ten counts of violating the federal Mann Act, which makes it a crime to transport a minor across state lines for sexual activity.

According to the indictment, the charges involve interstate trips with five girls from 1994 to 2005.

Prosecutors claim Alamo took some of the girls as brides.

This isn’t Alamo’s first run in with the law.

The “Arkansas Democrat-Gazette” newspaper reports he was a fugitive for two years before he was arrested in 1991.

He was acquitted of threatening a U.S. District judge, but was convicted of a felony count of filing a false federal income tax return three years later.

Alamo was sentenced to six years in prison.

His church lost its tax-exempt status in 1985 and church property was seized to settle tax debts in the early 1990s.

While in prison, Alamo is said to have continued operating a ministry with businesses and property in Arkansas, Oklahoma, California and New Jersey before his release in 1998.

FBI agents, local police and child welfare case workers raided a compound in Fouke, Arkansas on allegations that ministry children were being physically and sexually abused.