Seven Arrested For Ohio Amish Beard Attacks
Federal agents arrested seven Ohio Amish men Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a series of beard-cutting attacks.
Samuel Mullet, the leader of an offshoot group who reportedly ordered the bizarre attacks on other Amish men, was taken into custody along with his sons Johnny Mullet, Lester Mullet, and Daniel Mullet. Also arrested were Levi Miller, Eli Miller and Emanuel Schrock.
The men were taken into custody following a raid by FBI agents on their compound near the village of Bergholz in Jefferson County, Ohio, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
All seven suspects were charged with willfully causing bodily injury to a person because of the actual or perceived religion of that person.
The seven men appeared in US District Court in Youngstown, Ohio, Wednesday afternoon. Judge George Limbert ordered they be held by the US Marshals Service pending hearings next week, the Youngstown Vindicator reported.
According to a Department of Justice affidavit filed in support of their arrests, the suspects used scissors and battery-powered clippers to slice off the beards and hair of several Amish men, resulting in bodily injury, after the men disobeyed Sam Mullet.
Federal authorities said Sam Mullet made some of the people in his compound sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to "cleanse them."
Asked about the attacks, an Amish leader who asked not to be identified, told WJW-TV, "They did it to please Sam Mullet. They are brainwashed, those people, and he asked them to do this. He wanted somebody to be ashamed, that made him comfortable, that makes him feel good if people are ashamed."
For the Amish, having one's beard or hair cut off is considered degrading and shameful to the individual.
One victim told the FBI he would rather have been "beaten black and blue than to suffer the disfigurement and humiliation of having his hair removed," court papers showed.
If convicted, the maximum potential sentence is life in prison.
Fox Local
Samuel Mullet, the leader of an offshoot group who reportedly ordered the bizarre attacks on other Amish men, was taken into custody along with his sons Johnny Mullet, Lester Mullet, and Daniel Mullet. Also arrested were Levi Miller, Eli Miller and Emanuel Schrock.
The men were taken into custody following a raid by FBI agents on their compound near the village of Bergholz in Jefferson County, Ohio, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
All seven suspects were charged with willfully causing bodily injury to a person because of the actual or perceived religion of that person.
The seven men appeared in US District Court in Youngstown, Ohio, Wednesday afternoon. Judge George Limbert ordered they be held by the US Marshals Service pending hearings next week, the Youngstown Vindicator reported.
According to a Department of Justice affidavit filed in support of their arrests, the suspects used scissors and battery-powered clippers to slice off the beards and hair of several Amish men, resulting in bodily injury, after the men disobeyed Sam Mullet.
Federal authorities said Sam Mullet made some of the people in his compound sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to "cleanse them."
Asked about the attacks, an Amish leader who asked not to be identified, told WJW-TV, "They did it to please Sam Mullet. They are brainwashed, those people, and he asked them to do this. He wanted somebody to be ashamed, that made him comfortable, that makes him feel good if people are ashamed."
For the Amish, having one's beard or hair cut off is considered degrading and shameful to the individual.
One victim told the FBI he would rather have been "beaten black and blue than to suffer the disfigurement and humiliation of having his hair removed," court papers showed.
If convicted, the maximum potential sentence is life in prison.
Fox Local