Seven of nine Amish can remain free before sentencing

October 2, 2012

An attorney for another woman, Lovina Miller, said she has eight children she works hard to support and wasn’t a flight risk because she travels by horse and buggy and has strong beliefs against air travel.

Schrock and Lovina Miller were among the seven defendants the judge allowed to remain free.

9/28/12

Convicted Amish defendants ask to remain free to care for children, harvest crops

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jailing nine Amish defendants convicted of federal hate crimes would cause their families extreme financial hardships, allow their crops to go unharvested, and potentially force their children to go hungry this winter, defense lawyers argued in motions Thursday.

September 20, 2012

Samuel Mullet Sr., leader of Amish breakaway group, guilty of hate crimes in Ohio beard cutting attacks

A group of Amish leave the U.S. courthouse in Cleveland Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012. Sixteen members of a breakaway Amish sect in Bergholz, Ohio, led by Sam Mullet, have been found guilty of planning and taking part in the attacks targeted the hair and beards of Amish bishops.

September 11, 2012

Amish shunning is central to trial -- CLEVELAND — In the stern, self-regulating world of the Amish, those who act out by wearing the wrong clothing, going to movies or otherwise flouting the church’s doctrine can find themselves utterly alone.

Fellow Amish in rare instances won’t break bread with them at the same table, won’t work with them and won’t worship with them under the religion’s centuries-old practice of shunning. In stricter settlements, shunning can break apart families.

September 12, 2012

Ohio Amish Haircuttings a Hate Crime? Jury to Say

Each one of the hair- and-beard-cutting attacks against Amish men and women last fall was connected to one person, an Amish bishop who thought he was above the law and free to hand out punishment based on his religious beliefs, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

August 29, 2012

Amish sect leader's daughter calls beard-cutting victims hypocrites

Barbara Yoder, who was a reluctant prosecution witness, testified that she had heard accounts of the attacks from members of the sect led by her father, Samuel Mullet Sr., after the fact and had overheard some planning for the attacks.

August 30, 2012

CLEVELAND (AP) — An Amish bishop accused of orchestrating hair-cutting attacks in Ohio coerced women at his settlement into having sex with him so he could turn them into better wives, one of the women testified Thursday.

The woman said what started out as hugs turned into kisses and then sex. She said she resisted at first.

8/29/12

Son: Amish bishop in Ohio screamed ‘Don't shear me' before hair-cut attack that bloodied scalp

CLEVELAND — A hair-cutting attack on an Amish bishop left him so ashamed that he stopped preaching and refused to attend a family wedding because he didn’t want anyone to see him without his beard, his son testified Wednesday at the trial of 16 Amish men and women accused of carrying out a series of hate crimes on church leaders in Ohio.

8/27/12

Amish beard-cutting trial attracts international attention, pitting law of God vs. law of man

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The law of God will collide with the law of man this week in a crowded federal courtroom in Cleveland, where 16 Amish defendants -- 10 men with full beards, six women in white bonnets -- will stand trial on charges related to a series of beard- and hair-cutting attacks against fellow Amish men and women last year.

And the world will be watching.

August 24, 2012

Trial to Begin for 16 Members of Amish Group Charged in Beard-Cutting Attacks

Sixteen members of an Amish splinter group accused of terrorizing the Amish of eastern Ohio in bizarre beard-cutting attacks are scheduled to go on trial Monday in federal court in Cleveland.

April 28, 2012

Revelation that Amish Leader is Millionaire Sparks Legal Battle

CLEVELAND — A fierce legal battle is heating up between controversial Amish leader Sam Mullet and federal prosecutors over revelations that Mullet is a multi-millionaire.

Yet, the shunned sect leader has been represented since last October by a public defender, paid for by taxpayers.

Prosecutors said Mullet, 66, declared war on his fellow Amish bishops, after they voted to shun Mullet and his followers, amid allegations that include sexual abuse in a small enclave that Mullet founded in Bergholz, Ohio.

April 19, 2012

16 Amish plead not guilty in Ohio hair attacks

The six women and 10 men are charged with hate crimes motivated by religious differences, conspiracy and assault.

The suspects are also accused of trying to destroy evidence, including shears, a bag of hair and a disposable camera.

Prosecutors say the attacks were part of a feud directed by a breakaway Amish bishop, Samuel Mullet.

The updated indictment also alleges that Mr Mullet lied to federal officials.

April 18, 2012

The U.S. Justice Department says the prosecution of Amish sect leader Sam Mullet and 15 of his followers in Ohio under the federal hate crimes statute does not violate the U.S. Constitution and should proceed.

Lawyers for Mr. Mullet, 66, and the other defendants -- charged in Cleveland with orchestrating a series of beard-cutting attacks on other Amish -- have argued that the government's case should be dismissed because they say the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act should not apply to a dispute within a religion.

March 28, 2012

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged an additional four women with being involved in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio, and added new allegations that suspects tried to hide or destroy evidence including a bag of hair from the victims.

March 21, 2012

CLEVELAND — The alleged ringleader in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio cannot rely on taxpayers to pay his legal bills, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster ruled that Samuel Mullet Sr., 66, who has a nearly 800-acre farm near Steubenville with oil and gas leases, can afford to pay his defense attorney.

Mullet has been represented by a public defender, Edward Bryan, but now must pay the going court rate of $125 hourly if he wants to keep him, the judge ruled.

January 23, 2012

CLEVELAND — A breakaway Amish leader charged in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish complained Monday that the government is trying to demonize him to keep him locked up, but a judge again rejected pretrial release.

The attorney for Samuel Mullet Sr., 66, told the judge that the government is trying to invoke the memory of a deadly 1993 Waco, Texas, standoff in opposing Mullet's release.

U.S. District Dan Aaron Polster responded with a brief order rejecting the defense request to reconsider release on bond.

Janaury 18, 2012

The jailed Amish bishop accused of spearheading a beard- and hair-cutting campaign against religious foes today told a federal judge that he is willing to install electricity in his home to accommodate an electronic monitoring device if granted bond before trial.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Akron, Ohio, Samuel Mullet, 66, asks Judge Dan Polster to reconsider an order of detention originally entered following his arrest, along with several codefendants, last November.

December 2, 2011

The man authorities accuse of leading a bizarre, violent Amish sect in eastern Ohio has been ordered held without bail, along with two of his sons and his son-in-law.

Sam Mullet, whom the local sheriff called 'evil,' was arrested last month and charged with orchestrating a spate of attacks that terrified the Amish community.

November 23, 2011

CLEVELAND -- The FBI today arrested seven Amish men, charging them with hate crimes for cutting the hair and beards of other members of the Amish community in Holmes County because of a religious dispute, federal prosecutors announced today.

The men were taken into custody Wednesday morning at their compound in Bergholz, Ohio. The group is headed by Samuel Mullet Sr., who is the Bishop of an Amish sect known as the Bergholz Clan.

November 18, 2011

An elderly Amish man had his hair and beard chopped off by his son and grandsons in the latest Ohio incident believed to be connected to a breakaway Amish group, police said on Friday.

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CLEVELAND -- The FBI confirms it has joined the investigation into the Amish beard-cutting attacks, looking at them as possible hate crimes. "We're looking at any potential federal violations, specifically any civil rights violations, because we take civil rights violations as a very serious matter," FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson told WKYC.

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October 24, 2011

Amish cult community may commit mass suicide, former member warns.

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October 22, 2011

Ohio judge sends Amish beard-cutting case to felony court, continues bond for 5 defendants.

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October 20, 2011

MILLERSBURG —Five members of a Jefferson County Amish breakaway group were in court Wednesday morning in Holmes County facing charges.

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Ohio authorities have charged three men with cutting off an Amish man's beard - an act degrading to the Amish - and promise more arrests in that case and three others, all said to involve members of a group of former Amish who have split from the main community.

Two of the three men are sons of Sam Mullet, 66, who heads the breakaway group that lives in a compound with houses, barns, outbuildings, and a schoolhouse in a valley near the Ohio River in Bergholz, Jefferson County.

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