Local charges dropped against Bergholz Amish
In a press conference Wednesday, Nov. 23 attended by representatives of county-level Ohio law enforcement and the FBI, Holmes County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Knowling announced he will dismiss charges of kidnapping and aggravated burglary brought against Daniel S. Mullet, 37, 8865 County Road 53, Bergholz; Eli M. Miller, 31, 385 Township Road 280, Bergholz; Levi F. Miller, 53, 35 County Road 53, Bergholz; Johnny S. Mullet, 38, 362 Township Road 280, Bergholz; Lester S. Mullet, 26, 522 Township Road 54, Hammondsville.
The five men were previously charged in Holmes County Municipal Court in an Oct. 4 home invasion, in which they allegedly assaulted a Holmes County Amish bishop and members of his family, cutting the bishop's hair and beard.
The five men, along with Samuel Mullet Sr., 385 Township Road 280, Bergholz, and Emanuel Schrock, age and address unknown, were arrested Wednesday morning on a warrant obtained by federal agents. The seven men are charged with conspiring to commit hate crimes, and, aiding and abetting another in willfully causing bodily injury to any person, through the use of a dangerous weapon, because of the actual or perceived religion. The charges are violations of the Hate Crime Prevention Act.
The search warrant was carried out at Samuel Mullet's residence.
Daniel Mullet, Eli Miller, Levi Miller, Johnny S. Mullet and Lester Mullet were represented in Holmes County by Attorney Andrew Hyde. Hyde said he was speaking to Johnny Mullet on the phone at approximately 6 a.m. Wednesday when Mullet told him law enforcement officials "were pulling up outside the house."
"I assumed the charges had gone before the (Holmes County) grand jury and I was discussing turning himself in, how we should orchestrate that," Hyde said. "He didn't know it was coming, it was a surprise."
Daniel Mullet, Eli Miller, Levi Miller, Johnny S. Mullet and Lester Mullet were arrested Oct. 7 in Jefferson County on warrants from Holmes County.
Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said Samuel Mullet has, for a long time, posed a threat to his own congregation and members of the Amish community as a whole.
"(There are) Amish all over the state of Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana that are concerned," Abdalla said. "We've received hundreds and hundreds of calls from people living in fear. They are buying Mace, some are sitting up with shotguns, getting locks on their doors because of Sam Mullet."
According to a federal affidavit used to procure the search warrant, the seven defendants were responsible for four beard-cutting related attacks in Carroll, Holmes, Jefferson and Trumbull counties. The attacks were carried out Sept. 6, Oct. 4, Nov. 9, with the alleged Holmes and Carroll county attacks carried out on Oct. 4.
The dangerous weapon mentioned is a pair of 8-inch shears that were used to cut beards and hair of several Amish men and the hair of at least one woman in four attacks. In at least one instance, the shears caused lacerations to an Amish man's head as his hair was cut.
The final alleged attack on Nov. 9 involved Emanuel Schrock and his father. The father had left the Bergholz Amish in 2005 while Schrock remained.
According to Abdalla and the affidavit, the son wrote several letters to the father asking him to visit. In the letters, Schrock assuaged his father's fears in light of the recent attacks by writing that no harm would come to him.
While the father and mother were visiting, Schrock, "aided by other known persons," allegedly held his father and pulled and cut his hair. Schrock's mother was held with her mouth covered by another woman's hand when she tried to flee Schrock's residence.
According to the affidavit, the shears were sold in Holmes County to Lester Miller, Oct. 4. To demonstrate the sharpness of the shears, which were custom made in New York, the person selling them cut through a piece of leather, the affidavit states.
The attacks follow federal hate crime statutes in that they "religiously degraded members of other Amish communities," according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that Samuel Mullet ordered the attacks and has complete control over the Bergholz Amish. According to statements from two former members of the Bergholz church, Mullet allegedly is sexually intimate with the wives of other congregation members. He routinely allows punishment such as beatings for persons who do not obey him and has locked individuals in a chicken coop on his property for as long as 12 days at a time, according to the affidavit.
Likewise, the affidavit states, the Holmes County beard cutting attack was in retaliation for a decision by seven Amish bishops that reversed a shunning order of eight Berholz Amish familes by Samuel Mullet.
The families moved away from Samuel Mullet's church "for various reasons, but primarily due to religious disagreements" with him, the affidavit says. Samuel Mullet excommunicated the families as a result of their leaving his church. At a meeting of church leaders in Ulysses, Pa., "in 2005 or 2006" seven bishops investigated the shunning and decided Samuel Mullet's decision was not based on acceptable religious principles.
The Oct. 4 Carroll County attack was perpetrated on an Amish bishop who had assisted individuals who decided to leave the Bergholz Amish. The bishop was not among the seven bishops at the Ulysses meeting.
In the attack, carried out Oct. 4 at approximately 10:45 p.m., the victim was pulled from his home by the beard. The five codefendants from the attack earlier Oct. 4 cut the man's beard, who in turn resisted their attack. The man suffered physical pain as a result, according to the affidavit.
Photographs were taken of the victim in the Oct. 4 Holmes County beard cutting incident.
After the five alleged perpetrators were arrested Oct. 7 in Jefferson County on charges from Holmes County, Johnny Mullet and Lester Mullet admitted to their involvement to Holmes County Sheriff's deputies and named Daniel Mullet, Levi Miller and Eli Miller, as also being involved.
The Sept. 6 incident allegedly involved Eli Miller attacking a couple who had left the Bergholz congregation some years before. In the attack, Miller "and other known persons" restrained the couple and cut a man's beard and a woman's hair.
When interviewed by Holmes County Sheriff's deputies, Daniel Mullet said the attacks "were in retaliation for their (the victims') interference with church matters," according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that Samuel Mullet was aware the attacks were carried out and provided the assailants with addresses of the intended victims. In a recorded phone conversation Oct. 9 between Samuel Mullet and Lester Mullet, while Lester was incarcerated, Samuel Mullet said, "Ray and the men are ready to do it again, should I say - they want to go right away again." Samuel Mullet further told Lester Mullet to be "ready to go again" when he was released from jail.
In a conversation with Levi Miller the same day, Samuel Mullet reminded him that he had been placed in the chicken coop, "for a long time," presumably as punishment.
The seven men arrested Nov. 23 had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court later that same day, when they were informed of the charges against them. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30, according to court records.
Members of the U.S Attorney General's office requested that a hearing seeking continued confinement of Samuel Mullet be part of the Nov. 30 hearing.
U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach said the case "will now proceed" through the court system. Dettelbach said the arrests send the message that religious freedoms, long a keystone of the American way of life, will be preserved.
"(Religious differences) are debated by theologians... they are not resolved with late night visits with weapons and violent attacks," Dettelbach said.
Published: November 24, 2011
