Police: Man Posing As Chiropractor Sexually Assaulted Amish & Mennonite Women (Lancaster County)

This is a stomach-churning story. It is bad news. In some sense it is also “good news” in that this man has been caught and stopped from continuing his (alleged) awful behavior. From Penn Live:

A 61-year-old man pretending to be a chiropractor in Lancaster County sexually assaulted multiple women, including minors, during “treatments,” targeting Amish and Mennonites, court documents said.

John [Miller] Esh, of Strasburg, was charged with aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of minors, according to charging documents filed by Pennsylvania State Police.

The charges were filed after police interviewed nine female patients who said he touched their private parts during hourlong treatments.

Esh reported he performed “massages” and “chiropractic treatments” on more than 100 patients in the last 10 years in Lancaster County and had a few patients in Chester County, police said.

The investigation into Esh began in February 2024 after a woman informed police about Esh’s operation and alleged sexual assaults.

More on how he allegedly operated:

The treatments took place at the patients’ homes or inside his Strasburg Township residence, court documents said.

Esh told police he did not have a formal medical training and did not attend any classes or schooling that would certify him to give medical treatments, the affidavit said.

He had his clients sign a form agreeing not to tell other medical providers about what he did to them, according to police.

And from Lancaster Online:

Esh said he performed treatments on more than 100 patients over the last decade, according to police. He had patients sign a form titled “Plain Communities Health Care Private Membership Contract Application to become an Associate” that did not include a mention of touching clients’ private parts and states clients agreed not to tell outside practitioners or doctors about what happened during the treatments, according to charging documents.

Five women testified at an Aug. 27, 2024, Lancaster County Investigating Grand Jury that Esh assaulted them, according to charging documents. The women testified how Esh used his treatments to inappropriately touch them over and under their clothes. Charging documents describe one of the women as a minor when Esh met with her in the guise as a chiropractor.

There are further more specific details of what Esh did with patients at the first link – and particularly in this CBS 21 report – but I’ll leave that out here. Suffice to say that I stand by my choice of descriptor (“stomach-churning”) above.

I’ll only add that in addition to whatever sick pleasure he might have been enjoying, this guy was also (allegedly) making off like a bandit. To take the example of one “patient”: “Police said the woman paid Esh between $18,000 to $20,000 for 20 or 30 ‘treatments.'”

Not the first time

Sadly this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened. It immediately recalls the 2023 story which revealed that a chiropractor in Kansas City catering to (or rather targeting) the Amish sexually assaulted Amish females for decades.

Some bad people target women and girls in Amish & Plain communities because they are seen as easier to victimize, and generally compared to the average non-Amish woman, probably are.

In Amish society, males have greater authority than females, all things considered. An older male – Amish or not – who presents himself as a chiropractor or doctor or “health specialist” will have the advantage of authority.

And if he performs a procedure that makes you feel uncomfortable, well, you just don’t understand what he’s doing because you aren’t a “chiropractor”.

Not to mention this guy allegedly had them sign what sounds like a nondisclosure agreement, which would act as another layer keeping them quiet.

“John Esh” is a common name among the Amish. But none of the reports that I’ve come across – around half a dozen of them – indicate whether he was an Amish church member or not.

Or alternatively, if not an Amish church member, whether he has Amish heritage and proficiency in Pennsylvania Dutch (which would naturally make it easier for him to operate among the Amish).

I hate to think that there are other bad actors operating in Amish communities in similar ways. But I’d be surprised if these two cases from the past two years were the only two such examples.

Maybe Amish people should be more skeptical

Zooming out, the Amish are targeted by actors in the health and wellness industry in benign, non-criminal ways as well. Just pick up your average Amish-read newspaper or periodical.

Many of them are full of health and wellness products such as supplements, or practitioners advertising their services. There is a ripe market among the Amish for nonconventional treatments which are backed by word of mouth from family and trusted members of the community.

Now, I’m not suggesting that these many health practitioners offering their services should be suspect of anything like the bad behaviors that John Miller Esh is accused of.

I’m just saying that the Amish as a whole are generally open to unorthodox, more “off-the-radar” health solutions.

I also know this on another level in that I am approached periodically by people who want me to help them reach the Amish with this or that product or treatment (sorry, can’t help with that).

I’m also not saying that all health supplements or outside-the-box treatments are “bad”. Legitimate chiropractors I’m sure do some good work in bringing relief – and I’ve heard that from Amish friends who use them.

I have taken various health supplements myself that claim to “support” this or that functionality of the body (eg, gingko biloba which “helps to support healthy brain function”) but which don’t necessarily have ironclad study-backed proof of efficacy.

I would only say that maybe “the Amish” should be generally a bit more skeptical about some of these nonconventional treatments and approaches, and the people promoting them.

A specialist might have a foothold in your community, people you know may have used his services, but that doesn’t mean that what he does will necessarily benefit you – or not bring harm to you. Or in the very worst-case scenario as we allegedly have here, end up abusing you.

I don’t know the exact pathways by which Esh found his alleged victims. But I do know how Amish society operates in general – and that the word and example of others in the community can be highly influential.

Being too open to this and that treatment or alleged cure-all – maybe putting a bit too much faith in the word of family members – can foster a sort of mentality that accepts the unconventional a bit too easily.

Openness to unlicensed “specialists”…people operating in gray areas. Sometimes people operating in gray areas are operating in gray areas for a reason – and it’s not exactly for the reasons that they tell you.

And I believe giving yourself over to that mentality without a healthy skepticism can lead to you opening yourself up to worse things potentially happening.

I do realize that it is characteristic of the Amish for a lot of faith to be placed in family and community – and that that is one of Amish society’s strengths.

It’s just worth being aware that it can cut both ways. And in the very worst stories like these, might lead to you getting involved in something that you really don’t want to be involved in.

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