News
Smyrna man gets 32 years after Amish robbery try
| February 2, 2013DOVER DE – A 46-year-old Smyrna man received a 32-year prison sentence for attempting to rob an Amish couple at gunpoint last July, the Delaware Attorney General’s Office announced Friday.
Mark Carter was sentenced to prison Thursday after pleading guilty to two counts of attempted robbery, and one count each of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and burglary on Dec. 6, 2012.
Amish Mafia star arrested on hit-run, other charges Amish Mafia: Alan Lee Beiler scheduled to appear in Perry County on Feb.
| January 28, 2013A star of the Discovery Channel television show "Amish Mafia" is scheduled to appear again in Perry County court in three weeks.
Alan Lee Beiler, 35, of the 800 block of Country Lane in Paradise, Lancaster County, has been ordered to appear at 9 a.m. on Feb. 15 at the county courthouse in New Bloomfield for central court.
Amish Man Arrested on Sex Charges
| January 28, 2013W Farmington OH -- An Amish man from West Farmington was secretly indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury on numerous sex charges involving young girls over a four-year period.
Daniel Miller, 46, is being held at the Trumbull County Jail on a $250,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday to 11 charges, including two counts of rape, eight counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of sexual battery, involving five girls between the ages of 11 and 13.
We Are Placing You In The Ban
| January 26, 2013On behalf of your decision [leaving the Amish church], we now also have to make a decision. According to Glaubens Artikel #16 (which is based on Bible), we need to put out of the church whoever is not willing to stay with what he or she promised at baptism – or comes in unfruitful works of darkness. If we do not hear from you before Sunday, January 27, we will be voting with the church to do so. This will give you six weeks to decide. If we do not hear from you within those six weeks, we have no choice but to put you in the ban.
Biden claims to have heard gunshots from Lancaster Amish school shooting
| January 25, 2013Washington—Vice President Joe Biden said he was "literally" within earshot of the tragic 2006 Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, estimating he was about a quarter of a mile away from the school at a golf outing on that warm October morning.
Amish farmer charged with killing young Eagle
| January 22, 2013Zook, an Amish farmer, could face up to two years in jail and fines up to $5,000 if found guilty and depending on the feelings of the judge. In addition, a judge could require Zook to pay up to $5,000 to "replace" the eagle.
Shunned by Amish, pastor now pointing them to the Gospel
| January 20, 2013Formerly Old Order Amish, Sam Burkholder now works on lawn mowers to make a living while leading Fairview Baptist Church in Pollock, Mo., as a bivocational pastor and serving the Rays of Hope ministry to the Amish that he and his wife founded.
Shunned by Amish, pastor now pointing them to the Gospel
| January 20, 2013Kirksville MO -- Sam Burkholder and his wife Barbara are former members of the Old Order Amish Church who saw in their Christian relatives "a peace and joy that the Amish didn't have."
Amish In Midst Of Oil World They Seek To Escape
| January 20, 2013Pennsylvania - As oil companies move into Amish communities to extract oil through hydraulic processing, residents are speaking up, calling out oil companies for carrying out a long-term plan of deceit and manipulation. But not all Amish are in the same boat, with some benefiting from larger leasing payouts than their neighbors who signed onto contracts years ago.
6-Year Sentence In Amish Attacks
| January 18, 2013DECATUR, Indiana - An Adams County woman has been sentenced to six years in prison for her role in robbing Amish.
A look at the real people behind the characters of 'Amish Mafia'
| January 11, 2013Lancaster PA -- If a violent group of Amish "protectors" exists in Lancaster County as represented on a hit reality television series, Steven Echternach and Jonathan Heisse would know about it.
The two local cops are District Attorney Craig Stedman's liaisons to the Amish community, working with local Anabaptist groups on crimes of all sorts.
Bipolar disorder more common among the Amish
| January 10, 2013Eastern Mennonite University: The link between genetics and mental illness continues to engage Abram Hostetter, a psychiatrist in his fourth decade of world-recognized research into why Old Order Amish are more susceptible to bipolar disorder than the general population.
Samuel Girod
| January 10, 2013I was born in 1982 into the Swiss Amish culture. My parents and grandparents were born and raised in the Swiss culture also. My grandfather moved out of Adams County, Indiana where there is a large Swiss settlement. I was an Amish single man, 30-years-old, who had everything any Amish man wanted of what their culture allowed. But often I was unhappy and depressed. I tried not to show it, because I knew it would worry my parents.
A Year After Attacks, an Amish Community Grapples With Its Future
| January 9, 2013Bergholz OH, More than a year before the violent beard-cutting assaults spread terror among the Amish of eastern Ohio, several followers of Samuel Mullet Sr., the leader of an insular settlement in Bergholz, used similar practices on each other. Left, a barn on the Mullet family compound is being renovated.
For fast-growing Amish, a changing life
| January 1, 2013MILLERSBURG, Ohio — For Jacob Beachy, life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the 35 cows that need tending, and 90 acres of farmland. His isMILLERSBURG, Ohio — For Jacob Beachy, life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the 35 cows that need tending, and 90 acres of farmland. His is the life of an Amish farmer, in which family, work and faith intertwine on one plot of Ohio land.
Newtown could look to Amish, Bentzel for healing help
| December 17, 2012York PA -- As those touched by the tragedy journey toward healing, they could look to our community in south-central Pennsylvania for help.
The obvious place to start is in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, where a young man shot 10 innocent Amish school children, killing five. The forgiveness shown by that religious community was astonishing in its immediacy.
Suspect held in torture of three elderly Mennonite women
| December 14, 2012Lancaster PA -- An intruder with a "rage" against the Mennonite religion invaded a rural Clay Township home and assaulted and tied up three elderly women on Friday, police said.
The women, all between 84 and 90 years old, remained hospitalized Saturday after the incident in the 300 block of Indiantown Road.
Amish Mafia is a shameful, unrealistic portrayal of plain people
| December 13, 2012If anyone thinks that the Discovery Channel is about actual discovery of, say, science, history, space, or tech, as their Web site claims, think again. Or if you think that its sister company, The Learning Channel (TLC), is about learning new insight or information, you are mistaken.After TLC’s first run of the reality television show “Breaking Amish,” with paid persons assuming the roles of rebellious ex-Amish, the Discovery Channel has produced a more scripted “Amish Mafia,” admitting on their site that scenes are reenacted. The show, which airs in early December, brags a behind-the-scenes “first-ever look at the men who protect and maintain peace and order within the Amish.”
An Amish bishop behind bars
| December 4, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Sam Mullet, the renegade Amish bishop convicted on federal hate crime charges for his role in a series of beard-cutting attacks last year, has earned an unlikely nickname in prison.
Among his fellow inmates at Northern Ohio Correctional Center, the towering 67-year-old with wire-rimmed glasses, pudding-bowl haircut and retro facial hair is known simply as “O.G.”
Amish Man Sentenced For Fraud
| November 30, 2012In a two-day jury in October, Paul A. Graber, 46, was found guilty by a 12-member jury on two counts of fraud on a financial institution.
In Kosciusko County Circuit Court today, approximately 20 members of the Amish community were present for Graber’s sentencing. One man said loudly in the courtroom before the judge entered, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Jailed Amish can't attend wedding: Five convicted in beard and hair-cutting attacks can't leave jail
| November 23, 2012CLEVELAND — Defendants convicted in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish lost a bid Wednesday to leave jail to attend a family wedding after prosecutors argued they might flee or commit similar attacks while on furlough.
U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster, who presided at the trial of 16 Amish convicted in the attacks, ruled against requests by five of the nine locked-up Amish, who are awaiting sentencing on Feb. 8. Seven other defendants remain free pending sentencing.
Man jailed for attempted robbery of Amish-owned store
| November 21, 2012A Kirkwood man will spend up to five years in prison for attempting to rob an Amish-owned grocery store last year — and leaving empty-handed. A female clerk at the Colerain Township store refused Matthew Larrabee's demands for cash but Larrabee is still headed to state prison, a judge ordered Monday.
I Will Always Miss You Dad And Mom
| November 19, 2012Samuel Girod was Amish for 30 years. He was in a business partnership with his dad and owned two properties. He had everything an Amish man could ever want; however, deep down he felt a void -- a void that would finally drive him to leave his family, community and all that he owned.
Amish sect moving on
| November 16, 2012After a 15-year stay in northwestern Cambria County, the Swartzentruber Amish are moving on.
We expect they will leave behind many friends they made in Barr and Blacklick townships. And hopefully they are taking with them more fond memories than those of conflict and confrontation with agencies and the county courts.
The ultraconservative sect of Anabaptists are migrating to what they hope will be greener pastures.
Garfield Heights man honors an Amish 'buddy' he never knew for Veterans Day
| November 10, 2012MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — Mike Prorock slowly walked through an Amish cemetery nestled in an area of Middlefield where "Share the road" buggy signs outnumbered political placards last month.
Clenched in his fist were small American flags, tokens of respect to be placed at the grave of a fellow World War II veteran.
In My Heart, I Was Crying Out For Help!
| November 10, 2012I grew up in an Old Order Amish setting where I still live, and I thought I had a fairly normal life. I am the oldest of eleven children, and I probably got more privileges because of that. Our family got along reasonably well, except for the fact that Dad struggled with controlling his temper. This resulted in much tension in the home. In spite of this, I took pride in the fact that I was able to handle it well. I was seldom irked or upset by anything, but I was never happy either even though it might have appeared like it to people around me because I did a lot of whistling.
Amish culture and breaking free
| November 2, 2012PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - There's a part of our Wabash Valley community that leaves many answers unsolved. That community; the Amish. Hundreds live among us, with several families in Parke County, Indiana. However, for most people, how the Amish live is a mystery.
Amish Breaking Free
| November 2, 2012PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - There's a part of our Wabash Valley community that leaves many answers unsolved. That community; the Amish. Hundreds live among us, with several families in Parke County, Indiana. However, for most people, how the Amish live is a mystery. What you're about to see is a rare glimpse of Amish life from a family now excommunicated from the Amish order.
LETTER: Spanking data questionable
| November 1, 2012If spanking has all the negative effects that these researchers say that it does, why is it that the Amish people and the conservative Mennonites (those OK with automobiles and electricity) who spank their children without hesitation have a much lower rate of all those items such as aggression, violence and delinquency?
Amish man asks for safety upgrades to keep buggies safer
| November 1, 2012"...if he can help it, Emanuel doesn't want want to go heaven by Highway 38. "They've come up on us around the curve and they're up on us. You can hear the tires squeal sometimes," says Emanuel."