Amish Beard-Hair Cutting Cult Convicted
Sixteen Amish men and women were convicted last Thursday of what U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach called “religiously-based hate crimes.”
The crimes involved the defendants attacking and cutting the beards and hair off fellow Amish men and women who opposed their off-beat religious beliefs and practices.
A federal jury in Cleveland found 66-year-old Samuel Mullet, Sr., leader of the breakaway Amish cult group called the “Bergholz Clan,” guilty of organizing the attacks in an attempt to punish mainstream Amish critical of the cult’s beliefs.
Mullet and his 15 followers were found guilty of carrying out the attacks on his orders.
Federal Judge Dan Polster scheduled sentencing for Jan. 24.
The convictions stem from five separate assaults that occurred between September and November 2011.
Even though the attacks occurred in Jefferson, Holmes, Trumbull and Carroll counties, the case has been closely followed by local Amish residents because Mullet grew up on Bundysburg Road, the Geauga-Trumbull county line.
In addition, Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland, said one of the attacks occurred in nearby Mesopotamia, a Trumbull County community that is in the Geauga Settlement.
In each assault, Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said Mullet’s followers forcibly cut off the beards of Amish men and hair off Amish women they’d had an ongoing religious dispute with over the cult’s beliefs and practices.
Mullet and his sons, Johnny S. Mullet, 39, and Daniel S. Mullet, 38, were among those convicted of violating federal hate crimes, which involve harming or attempting to harm someone with a dangerous weapon because of their religious beliefs.
Samuel Mullet was also convicted of making false statements to the FBI.
The others found guilty of hate crimes were Levi F. Miller, 54, Eli M. Miller, 32, Emanuel Shrock, Lester Miller, 37, Anna Miller, Linda Shrock, Emma J. Miller, Kathryn Miller, and Lovina Miller, 32, all of Bergholz, as well as Raymond Miller, 27, Freeman Burkholder, 31, Elizabeth A. Miller, and Kathryn Miller, all of Irondale, and Lester Mullet, 27, of Hammondsville.
The jury convicted some of the defendants with assault and kidnapping, while Samuel Mullet, Lester Mullet and Eli Miller were convicted of concealing or attempting to conceal evidence, including a disposable camera used to take pictures of some of their attacks, Dettelbach said.
In an interview broadcast on the Cleveland radio station WMJI Friday morning, Dettelbach said the cult group purchased the camera because they wanted “trophies” of their crimes.
But after some of the jailed defendants realized the photos could be used against them in court, Dettelbach said they made calls to other cult members not in jail urging them to hide the evidence.
The calls were recorded by law enforcement officials, Tobin said.
“They didn’t destroy it (the camera) ‘cause they still wanted their trophies, so they literally covered it up,” Dettelbach said. “They literally took the thing into the woods and buried it under a mound of stuff.”
It took FBI agents three to four months to find the camera, he added.
Samuel Mullet had power over his small group of Amish followers in Bergholz because he was the Amish bishop in the community.
Using his authority, he took the wives of other Amish men into his home, where he sexually counseled them, a practice that involved having sex with them, according to the FBI’s investigation.
Samuel Mullet used various means of disciplining community members, including corporal punishment, according to trial testimony.
In some cases, Amish who resisted his authority were locked up in chicken coupes for several days, Dettelbach said in the broadcast interview.
However, the U.S. Attorney said Samuel Mullet’s religious beliefs and practices were “not on trial” and “were totally irrelevant to the case.”
He and his followers were prosecuted for violating the Hate Crimes Act, he added.
When other Amish who follow traditional biblical-based beliefs criticized Samuel Mullet, his followers planned and carried out a series of assaults on their perceived religious enemies, according to trial testimony.
“These were very, very violent assaults,” Dettelbach said in the interview. “The victims in this case were bloodied, they were bruised, they were beaten, they were dragged out of bed in the middle of the night — they were physically restrained.”
All the attacks occurred late at night, he added.
During some of the assaults, the defendants injured individuals who attempted to intervene to protect or rescue the victims, Dettelbach said.
Throughout the time period of the attacks, several local Amish told the Geauga County Maple Leaf they feared some of cult’s followers might venture into Geauga County.
In response, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office stepped up patrols in the Amish community.
