Sixteen defendants in the Amish beard-cutting incidents were arraigned in federal court in Cleveland yesterday.
The indictments include charges of kidnapping, conspiracy, and assault. All pleaded not guilty. One account is here.
Reading through the various media stories a few things jumped out:
- Six women are among the defendants.
- The seven men who are being held in prison wore orange jumpsuits.
- New charges of evidence tampering have been added. The accused are said to have bought a disposable camera to photograph victims, which they later hid from authorities. They also tried to “hide or destroy” shears and a bag of hair.
- A defense lawyer predicts the case will cost “millions of dollars”. Each defendant has a court-appointed attorney. Most of the attorneys are traveling to Cleveland from outside the area.
Photo: Marzie/sxc.hu
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It will be interesting to see what comes of this. I am off to the Amish Auction today. Perhaps I can find some good buys.
Thoughts?
If I remember correctly isn’t this an Amish sect {that followed a certain leader} that violated another sect.
I wasn’t aware there were women charged.
And isn’t it interesting that outside attorneys are involved.
There again an attorney making a name for him or herself.
And are they truly Amish if someone purchased a camera?
Just some thoughts to think over.
Wish I was on that jury.
It is interesting that court had to appoint attorney(s) as if these defendents were indigent. The leader owns multiple acres in Jefferson County and it is rumored that he has the mineral rights leased (which is no small change). He allowed (encouraged) his followers to build homes, barns, etc on the land he owns but would not sell them the land so in reality they own the buildings but not the land they stand on making it almost impossible to sell. One way of keeping his followers dependent. It will be interesting to see how the case evolves.
Too bad...
I hope when people see this that these 12 indivisuals are in no way Amish. Amish do not act like this. It’s sad to see that some people look at how horrible these 12 have acted and believe all amish are this way. The amish are just like everyone else, you will find the true amish and you will find the ones that call themselves amish. What these men and women did is sick.
The question I have did the men and women that got attacked forgive on their part? Did the press charges? I know they are big on forgivness.
Rachel some of the Amish victims were apparently involved in bringing charges, though they weren’t reported for some time and happened on a number of occasions. I think the rationale of getting the law involved was safety/to help the people doing the attacks by holding them accountable.
I hadn’t read that women were involved in the attacks. There are no doubt quite a few more facts that will be revealed in the trial.
Not sure what I think about this case being tried in a Federal court, or the hate-crime charges, but at this point I’ll reserve further judgement until the facts of the case revealed and both sides have made their case.
Ed there are some women involved but none being held in jail…I think they are accomplice or conspiracy type charges, I haven’t heard that women did any of the assaulting/cutting unless I missed something.
Find it really….really sad.
Update
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/beard-cutting-suspect-makes-new-plea-to-go-free-632900/