Amish beard-cutting leader charged with 'hate crimes'

A beard-cutting case in America's secretive Amish communicty has exposed allegations a sect leader presided over beatings of opponents, locked others in a chicken coop and took sexual advantage of married women. Samuel Mullet Sr., his three sons Johnny, Daniel and Lester, his son-in-law Emanuel Schrock, and followers Levi and Eli Miller were charged Wednesday with committing and conspiring to commit religious hate crimes. According to an FBI  affidavit Mullet ordered his sons and followers to cut off the beards and hair of rivals who contested his decisions as he ran his splinter group in the tiny community of Bergholz with an iron fist. Wielding eight-inch scissors and battery-powered hair clippers, the attackers arrived at victims' homes after dark, held them down forcibly and cut off the men's beards and the women's hair, the affidavit said. The attacks have shocked the Amish, pacifists who reject the idea of revenge. The distinctive beards of Amish men and the uncut women's hair are held as sacred, and trimming them is considered the ultimate humiliation. The affidavit included testimony from Mullet's daughter-in-law and former son-in-law, saying that he controlled "all aspects of the lives of Bergholz clan members." "No decisions are made in Bergholz or visitors permitted without Samuel Mullet Sr.'s permission," the affidavit said. "In disregard for Amish teachings and scripture, Samuel Mullet Sr. has forced extreme punishments on and physical injury to those in the community who defy him," it said. This includes "forcing members to sleep for days at a time in a chicken coop on his property and allowing members of the Bergholz clan to beat other members who appear to disobey Samuel Mullet Sr.," it said. "Moreover, Samuel Mullet Sr. has been 'counseling' the married women in the Bergholz clan and taking them into his home so that he may cleanse them of the devil with acts of sexual intimacy." The Amish, a small Christian community that predominantly dwells in the central US states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, shun modern conveniences such as electricity, cell phones and cars. They have religious leaders called bishops. Several different groups live almost side-by-side in neighboring counties in Ohio. Mullet and his wife and children, according to witnesses in the affidavit, moved in approximately 1995 from one community in Fredericktown, Ohio to another in Bergholz. Mullet became bishop of the Bergholz clan in 2003. Two years later, eight families moved out of the community, primarily due to disagreements over his leadership. The affidavit says Mullet excommunicated these families, which under Amish law made it impossible for them to join other communities until the situation was resolved. A meeting of some 300 Amish church leaders was held in Ulysses, Pennsylvania to address the practices of Mullet and the Bergholz clan and resulted in the excommunications being overturned. It was Mullet's anger at this decision that apparently set off the attacks. One of seven Amish bishops involved in that ruling had his beard cut on October 4. When the bishop pleaded with the attackers not to cut his hair and placed his hands over his head, one assailant told him he shouldn't struggle because he was a Christian, the affidavit said. The bishop replied that if they were Christians they shouldn't attack him, to which another assailant allegedly retorted: "We're not Christians." The same men are accused of attacking a second bishop in a neighboring county less than two hours later. On both occasions Mullet's followers took photographs of the victims to highlight the humiliation, the FBI said. Several attacks followed in the proceeding days including one on a 13-year-old girl, another on a 74-year-old man, and a third on an elderly victim who was allegedly shorn by his own son. Mullet himself is not accused of taking part in the attacks but charged with orchestrating them. One of his sons has confessed his involvement and implicated the others, according to the FBI. During his October 12 arrest, another of the accused, Levi Miller, was asked: "Were you following community orders?" Miller, according to the affidavit, responded "Yes, I guess I was." The seven accused, who were to be arraigned Wednesday in Youngstown, Ohio, face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.