Perhaps you remember Samuel Mullet, the Amish bishop going to trial for masterminding a series of beard-shearing attacks on those who disagreed with him. The prosecutor voiced his opinion on the case.
“Plainly stated, Samuel Mullet Sr. should be sentenced to a life term of imprisonment because, but for [italics added by prosecutors] Samuel Mullet Sr., it is highly unlikely any of his co-defendants would have engaged in violent and obstructive behavior,” wrote assistant U.S. attorneys Bridget Brennan and Kristy Parker in a sentencing memorandum.
“Samuel Mullet Sr.’s control over the Bergholz community was — and is — absolute. He was able to get men to surrender their wives to him. Wives would be forced to leave their small children and live in Mullet Sr.’s home so that they could be available to him.”
While Mullet didn’t actually engage in the hair cutting, he did, “openly encourage a campaign of terror.”
“There is no doubt that Mullet Sr. wanted, agreed with and encouraged all of these attacks,” the prosecutors wrote. “And for that reason, it is remarkable that he continues to deny his own culpability while throwing the other defendants under the proverbial bus, especially when some of these defendants are his children, his nephews and his clergymen.”
Plus, while speaking to investigators, Mullet appeared to have, shall we say, sung like a bird.
Prosecutors said that in a Nov. 23, 2011, interview with the FBI, Mullet was “all too eager to tell agents” about his sons Johnny, Lester, Danny and nephew Eli Miller’s roles in the attacks.
“For Mullet Sr., retribution and vengeance were far more important than protecting his children, grandchildren and community members,” the prosecutors wrote. “It was then, and still is, all about Mullet Sr.”
Mullet’s attorney disagrees.
“I’m appalled. I’m flabbergasted. They are making him out to be a David Koresh-caricature,” Bryan said, referring to the leader of the Branch Davidians cult in Waco, Texas. “I can’t believe the U.S. Justice Department is doing this.
“It’s clear from the government’s sentencing brief that the government is continuing to push its false narrative that Sam Mullet is a diabolical cult leader,” Bryan said. “While I recognize that the government’s responsibility to prosecute violations of the law, there comes a time a prosecution becomes a persecution. Based on what the government is seeking, it is clear that they’ve crossed that line.”
I should note that Mullet’s brand of religion is in contrast to more mainstream Amish people.
Witnesses likened the bishop’s ultraconservative Amish sect in Jefferson County, 100 miles southeast of Cleveland, to a cult that had turned its back on the religion’s nonviolent traditions.
The trial in September offered a rare glimpse into Ohio’s typically reclusive and peaceful Amish community. The proceeding also was an unprecedented application of a landmark 2009 federal law that expanded government powers to prosecute hate crimes and attracted national and international attention.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors brought up Mullet’s role in the greater Amish community.
“Mullet Sr.’s vengeful efforts to terrorize Amish practitioners who have made religious decisions to avoid and exclude him or who have disregarded his excommunications, illustrates that he is a danger to the greater Amish community,” prosecutors wrote.
Today we received word that Mullet received 16 years.
The Justice Department announced that 16 folks would be sent to prison for hate crimes against Amish folks. The defendants, who range in age from 23 to 67 and all lived in Ohio, were found guilty of “forcibly remov[ing] beard and head hair from practitioners of the Amish faith with whom they had ongoing religious disputes.”
“Sixteen people were sentenced to prison today for hate crimes arising out of a series of religiously-motivated assaults on practitioners of the Amish religion, announced Thomas E. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division; Steven M. Dettelbach, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio; and Stephen Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI – Cleveland Field Office,” the Justice Department announced.
Everyone involved received varying sentences
The list of guilty reads: “The defendants all reside in Bergholz, Ohio, unless otherwise noted. Samuel Mullet, 67, received a 15 year sentence. Johnny S. Mullet, 39; Lester Mullet, 28, of Hammondsville, Ohio; Levi F. Miller, 54; and Eli M. Miller, 33, received seven year sentences. Daniel S. Mullet, 38; Lester Miller, 38; and Emanuel Schrock, 44, received five year sentences. Raymond Miller, 28, of Irondale, Ohio; and Linda Shrock, 45, both received two year sentences. Freeman Burkholder, 32, of Irondale; Anna Miller, 33; Elizabeth A. Miller, 38, of Irondale; Emma J. Miller, 38; Kathryn Miller, 23, of Irondale; and Lovina Miller, 33, all received a sentence of one year and one day.”
