Stories about the Amish as victims – or perpetrators – of crime.
Sam Mullet along with the seven remaining imprisoned members of the Bergholz community have just received shorter sentences for their roles in the 2011 beard-cutting attacks. From the report (no longer online): Mullet’s 15-year sentence was reduced to 10 years, nine months. Sentences for four men who received seven years were cut to five years. Sentences for three men who got five years were lowered to three…
A recent article in the Massillon Independent depicts the efforts of law enforcement in Holmes and neighboring Tuscarawas County to thwart large parties held regularly in the area. According to authorities, these parties, such as those held at a resort in Tuscarawas County, have a significant Amish youth presence. Drugs such as meth and cocaine are sold and used at them. From the article: Such parties are…
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports on the latest controversy surrounding Sam Mullet and imprisoned members of his community: The federal Bureau of Prisons is forcing some imprisoned members of an Ohio Amish community to study for high school equivalency certificates in violation of their First Amendment rights, a lawyer for the sect contends. Lawyer Edward Bryan, who represents imprisoned Amish bishop Samuel Mullet, said Friday he…
Over the years, a number of cases have come to light of Amish who have committed sexual abuse. Many have in turn wondered how prevalent sexual abuse is among the Amish – and why it seems to keep recurring. Certain questions come to mind: Why does sexual abuse happen in some Amish homes and communities? What is it about the Amish church and culture that…
From a recent report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: The fractured Amish community of Bergholz is distraught over news that bishop Samuel Mullet and seven of his hate crime co-defendants have been assigned to prisons scattered across the country — some as far as 1,000 miles away. Samuel Mullet originally had been designated to serve his 15-year sentence in Loretto, Pa. — the same low-security federal correctional…
In an article in the latest Mennonite World Review, Donald Kraybill, who served as expert witness in the trial, had this comment on Sam Mullet’s group: “I call them a clan, and I do not consider them Amish at all.” More: In September, Kraybill gave five hours of testimony in a crowded courtroom. He visited the Bergholz area last year and interviewed about 15 people, including…
Sentences have been given in the Amish beard-cutting case: The leader of a dissident Amish sect was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for a series of bizarre beard- and hair-cutting attacks on other Ohio Amish that drew national attention. Samuel Mullet Sr., 67, the leader, was sentenced in Federal District Court in Cleveland, for coordinating assaults that prosecutors argued were motivated by…
From a story just published: Some Amish are asking for a life sentence for the man convicted of beard cutting attacks. The U.S. Attorney in Cleveland has received 14 letters from Amish in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, in which a “long” or “life” sentence for renegade Amish bishop Sam Mullet, Sr., is requested. Fourteen letters is more than just one or two isolated people writing. No…
A reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer visited Bergholz recently, and has given us a look at the community from a different perspective. Unlike most previous coverage, this article provides a rather sympathetic look at the group: Last week, members of the Bergholz community scoffed at the government’s portrayal. They said they were tired of being treated like zoo animals by others in different Amish…
Over the past weekend a driver apparently purposely drove his car into a horse pulling a buggy full of Nappanee, Indiana -area Amish teenagers. Francisco Gonzalez was captured on a Wal-Mart parking lot camera turning around and returning to the road to run into the buggy horse, which was killed instantly. The boys were shaken but unhurt; what the driver left behind was described as…