Amish in the News

CLEVELAND -- Prosecutors will be able to tell jurors about alleged sexual "counseling" of Amish wives by a man charged with masterminding beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The curious involvement of an Amish-Mennonite sect in a high-profile case of international parental kidnapping will be on display — and perhaps become clearer — in a courtroom in Burlington, Vt., this week.

A new census of the Amish population in the United States estimates that a new Amish community is founded, on average, about every 3 1/2 weeks, and shows that more than 60 percent of all existing Amish settlements have been founded since 1990.

Quick work by Amish church goers of the Northwest District at the farmstead of Neal Borntrager, 5570 Eagle Ave, Kalona, saved 12 horses from a building that caught fire about 10 a.m. Sunday.

A pregnant Amish woman picking berries in the woods near her Pennsylvania home was killed by lightning on her due date. The fetus also died.

BELLEFONTE — The young woman who robbed an Amish family’s store at gunpoint last year in Aaronsburg has pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors will ask that Brittany Wingard, 20, of Aaronsburg, get three to seven years when a judge sentences her next month.

An Amish man failed to show how obtaining a permit for his new sawmill violates his religion, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. The 4th District Court of Appeals found Joni Borntreger's arguments too vague to conclude the permit requirements infringed on his beliefs and kicked his case back to the circuit court level. The ruling reversed a decision by Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas E. Lister, who initially ordered Borntreger to pay a forfeiture before changing his mind and dismissing the case.

An Amish couple in a horse and buggy was held up at gunpoint Sunday by a bandit who pulled his car in front of the buggy and then drove off when the victims didn’t have any money, police said today.The attempted robbery occurred about 12:20 p.m. near the intersection of Holly Island Road and Bryants Corner Road in Hartly, Master Cpl. Gary Fournier said.

LANCASTER, Pa. — Daniel is a publicity-shy member of the Old Order Amish Church. But it thrills him to jump into an ambulance vibrating with wailing sirens and flashing lights. The 24-year-old Leacock Township father of two recently became certified as an emergency medical technician. For five years previously, he was a firefighter.

Amish farmers, whose beliefs stop them from inoculating their children but not their horses, thronged a first-ever free veterinary vaccination clinic this week to fend off a disease that has killed a dozen horses and a four-year-old girl.

FORT SCOTT, Kansas (Reuters) - The simple way of Amish life is a bit too simple for one Kansas county, which wants outhouses on their farms to be upgraded and an end to plowing raw human sewage into the fields. Officials in Bourbon County want Amish families to stop using outhouses unless they comply with codes requiring waste disposal tanks. That would be costly and unnecessary, say Amish homeowners.

GEAUGA COUNTY, Ohio – The Geauga County Sheriff’s Office is looking for two men who robbed two young Amish couples at gunpoint, at separate times, about 11 p.m. Sunday on Patch Road in Parkman. “The county sheriffs are doing a very good job of trying to track this down, and we really appreciate that,” said an Amish man driving by the robbery site in a buggy.

GREENWICH, Ohio - Life in Mennonite and Amish communities in northwest Ohio center around family. The children intrinsically know how to please and provide. "If it's feeding calves, you know, they can do that before they go to school. A five-year-old can feed a calf," said Elvin Zimmerman. Everyone of Zimmerman's eight kids started doing chores at age five which included hand feeding calves. As they grow, their responsibilities grow as well. But in April, one of Zimmerman's sons was killed in a farming accident while operating a machine his dad made.

One look at the countryside and the beauty should take your breath away. "If you want to retire some place, this is the place to do it," said Justin Siak. "There's something to this." Amish country is nestled in northeast Ohio and is a snapshot of living life simple and serenely. Thousands of tourists are drawn to Holmes County each year, ONN's Denise Alex reported.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The man dubbed the Amish Bernie Madoff tried to disassociate himself from the notorious New York City swindler Wednesday, but a federal judge didn’t buy it. U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson rejected Monroe Beachy’s request to serve a term of home confinement, and instead ordered him to spend 6 ½ years behind bars, followed by a year of probation, for bilking investors out of millions of dollars.

FAIRBANK - A member of an Amish Community, William J. Yutzy, 30, of 33906 Hilton Road, Edgewood, formerly of 1370 Dillon Ave., Fairbank, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on one count of Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, a Class C Felony, in Buchanan County District Court on Tuesday, June 5.

MIDDLEFIELD -- Some Amish leave the faith to pursue further education. William Troyer grew up in Middlefield and left the Amish community at age 18. "There's nothing wrong with being Amish, it just wasn't for me," says Troyer. He is now a student at the University of Akron who plans to become a teacher.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. — According to criminal complaint obtained by 6News, a Huntingdon County man charged last month on accusations of sexually abusing three boys was slapped with new charges this week. State police filed 145 child sex abuse charges against 65-year-old Larry Myers in April, after three boys told investigators that they were molested and sodomized by the man inside his home and on trips when he hauled mulch with his truck.

A group of Amish men are currently in court because they refuse to install smoke detectors in their New York homes:

GALLIA COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) -- An Amish store was robbed at gunpoint Monday morning. The Gallia County Sheriff's Office says the robbery happened about 7 a.m. at Yoder Lumber in Walnut Township.

On a chilly April morning, Amishman Moses "Mose" B. Smucker joined Mennonite and Evangelical friends, all of them Stoltzfus descendants, to talk of faith and heritage in an unfinished Wyomissing barn. It was a cold barn, smelling of freshly cut wood and earth, not passing for a church or temple but somehow evoking the sacredness of a manger. Thoughts of words in the Bible's 1st Corinthians resonated: "For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

PULASKI, TN (WAFF) - The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested a Pulaski, Tennessee man on several sex charges. Investigators said 80-year-old Maurice Dale "Jimmy" McAllister abused male and female victims over the course of seven years. Residents in Pulaski said they were shocked the allegations happened in their community.

Two collisions that crushed horse-drawn buggies and critically injured two Amishmen in Mercer County this month have renewed attention to the mismatch between fast, heavy metal motor vehicles and slow, lightweight wooden buggies. Most Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities have worked diligently to make their buggies visible at night. The trouble is that new research shows that nighttime isn't the most dangerous time for buggies. Instead it's sun-blindness. And often the problem is not the buggy, but a distracted motorist.

WOOSTER, Ohio – A Wayne County man convicted of causing the death of an Amish girl in a drunk driving accident was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison. The crash happened in August 2011, when the girl’s family was heading home from a produce auction in Congress Township, and their wagon was struck from behind by a pickup truck. Four members of the Amish family were ejected from the wagon, which was outfitted with lights and reflectors. Sarah Zook, 11, was killed, and her brother and sister were seriously injured.

The scene couldn’t have been more idyllic. Four women gathered around a large quilt, intently sewing and averting their eyes from curious gazes. Their plain, black dresses and hair covered in a cap identified them as Amish. Faint strains of German could be heard in their muted conversation. Then a cell phone rang, breaking the peaceful silence. The oldest Amish woman lunged for her purse, dug around for a cell phone and, successfully finding it, screamed “Hello?” into the modern contraption.

CLEVELAND — An Ohio man will plead guilty in federal court to defrauding fellow Amish in 29 states out of nearly $17 million as part of a case the man’s church had hoped to shield from publicity and outside involvement, the government said Tuesday. The attorney for Monroe L. Beachy, 77, owner of A&M Investments in Sugarcreek, filed a recent notice informing federal court of his “intention to plead guilty as charged.”

RIPLEY, N.Y. -- A Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department patrol car collided with an Amish buggy as it was responding to a report of an underage party on Sunday at 7:15 p.m. The Amish buggies were traveling northbound in both lanes of Clymer Hill Road in Sherman, N.Y. when the patrol vehicle approached them, said the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department.

PARKMAN OH -- A three-year-old Amish girl was found unresponsive under a chicken coop that apparently fell on top of her and her sibling Wednesday afternoon. Lt. John Hiscox with the Geauga County Sheriff's Department says deputies and rescue crews were called to a Bundysburg Road farm Wednesday afternoon.

MANSFIELD OH -- One teenager who recently left his Amish community to live and work in the city was killed and two others were hurt in a single-car wreck early Tuesday, according to the Mansfield post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

New York state law enforcement officials say two Amish children are in critical condition after the horse-drawn buggy they were in was rear-ended by a package delivery driver. The auto accident was about 330 miles north of Newburgh in the border town of Massena, in St. Lawrence County.