FBI arrests seven over Amish beard cutting attacks
By Kim Palmer
CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Seven men from an Amish splinter group in Ohio were arrested on federal hate crimes charges on Wednesday, accused of involvement in humiliating attacks on fellow Amish involving cutting off their beards and hair.
The men face charges linked to multiple religiously-motivated physical assaults, and the most serious charges could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
"The defendants forcibly restrained multiple Amish men and cut off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers, causing bodily injury to these men while also injuring others who attempted to stop the attacks," the statement said.
The assaults were viewed as particularly egregious for the Amish because, once married, Amish men typically do not trim their beards and Amish women do not cut their hair for religious and cultural reasons.
The attacks took place throughout the fall in three counties south of Cleveland, one of the country's largest concentrations of Amish.
Among the arrested was the breakaway sect's leader, Bishop Samuel Mullet Sr. of Bergholz, Ohio, who was accused of orchestrating the beard-cuttings as revenge for being shunned by the Amish community.
Also arrested were Mullet's family members, Johnny S. Mullet and Daniel S. Mullet of Bergholz and Lester S. Mullet of Hammondsville, Ohio. Police also arrested Levi F. Miller, Eli M. Miller, and Emanuel Schrock, all of Bergholz.
The men were expected to be arraigned later on Wednesday.
In one of the attacks, earlier this month, an elderly Amish man had his hair and beard chopped off by his son and grandsons, who have ties to the sect. The man, however, did not press charges, sticking with the Amish tendency not to contact police, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said.
The attack drew the focus of the FBI.
"I'd like to see Sam Mullet convicted and taken from the community," Abdalla said after the November attack. "You just can't realize the power and domination he has over his people."
In October, five accused attackers -- Daniel, Johnny, and Lester Mullet, as well as Levi and Eli Miller -- were arrested on state charges of kidnapping and aggravated burglary after they were accused of attacking a family of five.
(Writing by Eric Johnson in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
In the first case of its kind, the FBI on Wednesday arrested the leader of an Amish splinter sect and six of his followers in Ohio on federal hate crime charges for cutting the hair and beards of other Amish men and women.
The hair-cutting was a form of religious degradation and viewed as punishment in a leadership squabble among various Amish clans, court documents say.
“The defendants conspired to carry out a series of assaults against fellow Amish individuals with whom they were having a religiously-based dispute,” Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said in a joint statement.
The suspects “forcibly restrained multiple Amish men and cut off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers, causing bodily injury to these men while also injuring others who attempted to stop the attacks,’’ the statement said.
The case is unusual in that the Amish are pacifists who denounce violence and routinely handle their disputes and punishments internally without involving law enforcement.
“The fact that federal charges have been filed is stunning in this Ohio town, as the Amish seek to forgive those who have wronged them,” Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter John Caniglia reported Wednesday from Millersburg.
The attacks began in September and continued as recently as Nov. 9, prompting FBI agents to move quickly to make the arrests with a federal criminal complaint and arrest warrants signed by a U.S. Magistrate instead of waiting for the more-protracted grand jury indictment process.
In a federal criminal complaint filed in Cleveland, Samuel Mullet Sr., Johnny S. Mullet, Daniel S. Mullet, Levi F. Miller, Eli M. Miller and Emanuel Schrock, all of Bergholz, Ohio; and Lester S. Mullet, of Hammondsville, Ohio, are charged with using a deadly weapon and causing bodily injury because of the actual or perceived religion of their alleged victims.
The attackers used clippers and bought a $27.95 pair of horse mane sheers to carry out the hair- and beard-cuttings, photographing the disfigured victims afterwards, court documents say. The maximum potential penalty for these federal violations is life in prison.
Johnny, Daniel and Lester Mullet and Levi and Eli Miller were arrested in Holmes County, Ohio, on Oct. 7 on state charges of aggravated burglary and kidnapping with the intent to terrorize or commit serious injury. They were free on state bond when they were re-arrested Wednesday when a team of FBI agents and local police raided the Bergholz compound near Millersburg, Ohio.
Samuel Mullet Sr., who became the bishop of an Amish clan in Bergholz, Ohio, in 2003, is accused in charging documents with leading the hate crime conspiracy, directing his sons to cut the hair and beards of followers who he ex-communicated after they moved away. Other Amish bishops later determined Mullet’s excommunications weren’t in keeping with Amish teachings and scripture, and the defectors were allowed to join other Amish clans – apparently angering Mullet.
The charging documents allege Mullet has “forced extreme punishment and physical injury” on those in his community who defy him. He has forced his followers to “sleep for days at a time” in a chicken coop and allowed members of the Bergholz clan “to beat other members” who disobey Mullet.
He also “has been counseling the married women in the Bergholz clan and taking them into his home so that he may cleanse them of the devil with acts of sexual intimacy,” the documents allege.
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