The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that authorities yesterday arrested Samuel Mullet, Sr., the Bishop of a break-away Amish group, known as the Bergholz clan, as well as three of his sons and three other followers, on charges of forcibly cutting the beards of 4 Amish men who were members of a different Amish community. The FBI Affidavit in support of a criminal complaint (full text) says that Mullet controlled all aspects of his followers lives, forced extreme punishments on them and cleansed married women in the clan of the devil by sexual intimacy with them. After 8 families moved away from the Bergholz community in 2005 because of religious disagreements, Mullet excommunicated them. However a special committee of bishops from other communities determined that Mullet's excommunications were invalid. The 4 victims of the beard cuttings were involved with the bishop's committee, or aided break-away families, or, in one case, was one of the excommunicated members (and the father of one of those charged in the case). (See prior related posting.)
The Affidavit seeks a criminal complaint charging the 7 defendants with conspiracy to violate the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act (18 USC Sec. 249). The federal Hate Crimes statute permits federal prosecution only if the crime involves one or more specified links to interstate commerce. One of those links is that the defendant employed a dangerous weapon that has traveled in interstate commerce. The FBI affidavit states that the attacks were carried out with "hair clippers and 8" scissors manufactured in the state of New York."
