Fake Chiropractor Who Assaulted Amish & Mennonite Women Gets Probation — Thanks To Plain Community “Roadblocks,” DA Says

In May of 2025 we learned of charges against a man named John Miller Esh of Strasburg Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Police said Esh posed as a chiropractor and sexually assaulted women and minors in the Plain community in that role, during “treatments.”

I described it at the time as a “stomach-churning” story. There are further details as to what he was alleged to have done here. Now news has come that Esh, 63, has pleaded guilty and been sentenced – but not to any prison time.

Esh received 10 years of probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to assaulting multiple women and a child. And sadly, prosecutors say members of the Plain community put up “roadblocks” that kept him out of prison.

Plea Deal Drops Three Felony Counts

Esh pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault without consent, one count of corruption of minors, and one count of practicing chiropractic without a license. Three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault were dropped. From the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office:

Judge Merrill Spahn handed down the sentence to John Miller Esh, 63, after he pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to one count of corruption of minors, three counts of indecent assault without consent and a single count of operating a chiropractic practice without a license.

The most serious charges Esh faced, three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault without consent, were dropped in order to reach the resolution.

Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick, who prosecuted the case, explained the resolution was “consistent with the wishes of the remaining victims,” all of whom are members of the Plain community who did not wish to see Esh imprisoned for his actions.

Haverstick decried the actions of the Plain community, who he said provided “zero cooperation” with investigators and put up “roadblocks” to shield Esh from consequences.

As part of the sentence, Esh must register as a sex offender for 15 years. He is also barred from any profession that requires a license, registration, certificate or permit.

Prosecutor Says Victims Were “Stared Down” At Hearing

Of the nine victims in the original charges, only four agreed to testify at Esh’s preliminary hearing in June 2025. Haverstick said the plea “was the best we could get to out this man” in order to warn the community of the danger he poses. More from the release:

Though dozens of women may have been abused by Esh, most of those interviewed by investigators were “minimally compliant,” Haverstick said. Esh had initially been charged with assaulting nine victims, but at a preliminary hearing in June 2025 only four of the victims were willing to testify that though Esh told them he was going to massage them, he never explained what parts of their bodies he was going to touch.

Haverstick told the court Esh’s victims were “stared down” and intimidated by other members of the Plain community at the preliminary hearing, causing nearly all of them to recant their testimony on the stand by claiming the interactions were consensual, creating challenges for the prosecution that ultimately led to the plea deal being offered.

“What I saw was disturbing,” Haverstick said of the preliminary hearing. “It was disgusting.”

And, Haverstick said, the “malignancy” in the Plain community to protect their own from any allegations “is getting worse.”

Esh’s defense attorney, Christopher Sarno, acknowledged the difficulties investigators faced with the community’s response, but said that resistance does not reflect most of the community, according to LancasterOnline. He also said Esh faced “immense pressure” to plead guilty.

How Esh Operated

Pennsylvania State Police began investigating Esh in February 2024 after a woman came forward. Esh presented himself as an all-purpose healer, but he had no chiropractic license and no medical training.

Victims told police they went to him for fertility problems, low energy, injuries, aches, and in one case recovery from a miscarriage. The District Attorney’s Office says the assaults took place between 2016 and 2024.

One woman paid between $18,000 and $20,000 for 20 to 30 sessions in 2016 and 2017. Another had more than 100 sessions for headaches. The assaults continued after she told him what he was doing was not necessary.

Esh told police he had treated about 100 patients over the previous decade, for which he was paid. According to the 2025 charging documents, he had clients sign a form agreeing not to tell outside doctors what happened during treatments.

Judge Calls Sentence “Insufficient”

Lancaster County Judge Merrill Spahn, a Strasburg Township native who grew up around Amish and Mennonites, agreed with the prosecutor’s assessment. From the release:

“I respect your faith,” Spahn told Esh before imposing the sentence, but “make no mistake, I have no respect for these allegations.”

The reaction from others in the Plain community to protect Esh left Spahn “almost without words,” he said, and the resulting sentence is “not appropriate” and “insufficient” for the crimes at hand.

Nevertheless, Spahn said, he had little choice but to accept the plea deal and impose the sentence due to the circumstances of the case.

So Esh will remain free and in theory will be able to re-offend. Hopefully those around him will take appropriate precautions. And Haverstick sees cause for concern:

“He does not have good intentions,” Haverstick said. “He has intentions to sexually abuse women.”

A Step Backwards

Efforts have been made to encourage reporting of abuse in Amish communities and to support survivors, such as an awareness program for Amish bishops in central Pennsylvania and Voices of Hope, a support network for Amish and Mennonite survivors. In Lancaster County, both a county task force and an Amish-run committee have also worked on the issue.

Those efforts have been pitted against community dynamics that have discouraged victims of crimes from reporting them with the preference for punishment to be handled only through the church discipline. That’s not how it works everywhere of course, but that is the reality in some places working against justice and the ongoing safety of victims.

Still, some perpetrators have been made to face full justice in criminal courts. For example, in another recent case, an Amish man in Ohio was sentenced to 31 years to life for the rape of his daughters.

Unfortunately in this case, it appears that someone who committed prison-worthy offenses is going to escape that type of punishment. And according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s office, that’s because some in the Plain community wanted it that way and exerted pressure on the victims to make sure they got that outcome.