Mullet Cult Convictions Overturned

Remember the Mullet Cult? Amish bishop Sam Mullet and his followers, members of an Ohio group called the Bergholtz community, were convicted of hate crimes for several attacks in which they cut the hair and beards of fellow Amish who wouldn't defer to Mullet's authority. On appeal, a panel of judges has overturned their convictions, on the grounds that prosecutors failed to demonstrate a "religious motive" for their crimes.

A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel sided with arguments brought by attorneys for the Amish, convicted two years ago in five attacks in 2011. The attacks were in apparent retaliation against Amish who had defied or denounced the authoritarian style of Sam Mullet Sr., leader of the Bergholz community in eastern Ohio.

In a deeply divided decision, two of the three judges on the panel concluded that the jury received incorrect instructions about how to weigh the role of religion in the attacks. They also said prosecutors should have had to prove that the assaults wouldn't have happened but for religious motives.

"When all is said and done, considerable evidence supported the defendants' theory that interpersonal and intra-family disagreements, not the victims' religious beliefs, sparked the attacks," the judges wrote.

They said it was unfair to conclude that "because faith permeates most, if not all, aspects of life in the Amish community, it necessarily permeates the motives for the assaults in this case."

Sam Mullet Sentenced

Bishop Sam Mullet, the accused ringleader behind a series of hair and beard-cutting attacks on other Amish men and women that took place in 2011, was sentenced earlier this month to fifteen years in prison for his role in the attacks. Mullet was the last to be charged and therefore the last to be sentenced, bringing an apparent close to the Mullet Cult Saga that I've been covering for the last year and a half here on Augoeides. Fifteen of Mullet's family members have already been sentenced and are serving terms ranging from one to seven years.

"The victims were terrorized and traumatized," U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster said in sentencing leader Sam Mullet Sr., 67, who sat without emotion.

The judge said the defendants had violated the constitutional rights protecting religious practice that had benefited them as Amish — such as an exemption from jury service and allowing Amish children to leave school at age 14."Each of you has received the benefits of that First Amendment," Polster said.

The judge said the defendants have two weeks to file appeals of their sentences or convictions. Defense attorneys have indicated such appeals are likely.

What's that? An appeal? Count me in! My sheer amusement at being able to report on a guy named Mullet involved in illegal hair cutting hasn't subsided yet. I look forward to keeping you posted on these possible Mullet Cult appeals, and not just because it lets me mention the "Mullet Cult" one more time. From a religious freedom perspective, this case sets a precedent that had never before been addressed because it's just so weird and has broad-ranging implications for members of other religions outside the mainstream.

Mullet Cult Convicted

The trial of Sam Mullet and fifteen of his Bergholz Clan followers ended yesterday with convictions for all of them on federal hate crime charges. This goes to show that even if your name is Mullet you'll still get in a lot of trouble if you order people to go around cutting hair, and arguing that you were just following the hair-cutting orders of a guy named Mullet won't help you either.

Sam Mullet Sr. and the 15 followers were found guilty of conspiracy to violate federal hate-crime law in connection with what authorities said were the religiously motivated attacks on several fellow Amish people last year. The verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Cleveland following several days of jury deliberation and a trial that began in late August, a U.S. attorney's office said.

Prosecutors said the 15 followers, at Mullet's instruction, shaved the beards and cut the hair of Amish people who had left his group over various religious disagreements. Five attacks happened in four Ohio counties between September and November 2011, authorities said. To the Amish, a beard is a significant symbol of faith and manhood, and the way Amish women wear their hair also is a symbol of faith, authorities said.

When interviewed back in November, Mullet was smug about the charges against him, questioning whether beard-cutting could even be considered a crime. Well, the answer is that in this case it can under hate crime laws, because hair and beards have great religious significance to the Amish. Reuters reports that Mullet and his followers face a minimum sentence of 210 months, so it sounds like they will have many years of bad prison haircuts ahead of them.

Mullet Cult Trial Begins

Those of us who follow news of the weird have waited months to finally see this day come to pass. Yesterday jury selection was completed for the trial of Amish Bishop Sam Mullet and fifteen other members of his breakaway sect. As my regular readers know, Mullet is on trial for allegedly ordering his followers to cut the hair and beards of other Amish men and women involved in a dispute with his Bergholz Clan, as the group calls itself. Mullet and his co-defendants were arrested last November in what one might call a daring nighttime FBI raid, you know, had the targets not been pacifist Amish who also happened to be asleep at the time. At any rate, with jury selection complete the trial of the Mullet Cult can now move forward.

A jury was selected on Monday for the case being heard in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, The Associated Press reported.

Samuel J. Mullet Sr. and his co-defendants, all but one of them relatives, face charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, hate crimes and obstruction, "because of actual or perceived religion" of the victims, according to an affadavit.

Sixteen men and women are accused in three separate attacks on nine people. Mullet, 66, is accused of being the ringleader of the assaults although authorities say he was not present during any of them, according to Reuters.

Prosecutors will seek to show that Mullet had cult leader-like control over the members of the Amish clan who allegedly engaged in the attacks.

There's no word yet on whether any of the members of the newly selected jury actually sport mullets. But that raises an important question - would the presence of a genuine mullet on the hair-cutting jury sway deliberations for against the defendants? I could see that one going either way. On the one hand, I can only assume mullet-wearers are more likely to think of being given a bad haircut as no big deal. On the other, they probably are also none too happy about being associated with a man some describe as a controlling cult leader - because even though the mullet is business up front, it also promises a party in the back. The Amish, after all, aren't exactly party animals, and Mullet's group is regarded as quite conservative even among other Amish.

UPDATE: On Wednesday Salon put up an article covering the first day of testimony in the trial. Andy Hershberger, the son of one of the men who was attacked, testified that his father's hair was cut in retaliation over a religious disagreement with Mullet. The defendants do not deny that the attacks took place, but rather claim that the Amish are bound by religious rather than secular law. We'll see how that works out for them as the trial unfolds.

More Mullet Cult Arrests

The Amish Beard Wars saga continues! On Wednesday, the FBI and Ohio police launched a raid against Sam Mullet's Bergholz Clan compound, arresting seven members of the sect including Mullet himself and three of his sons. The seven face federal hate crime charges in connection with hair and beard-cutting attacks on other Amish women and men, allegedly ordered by Mullet and carried out by members of his group.

Seven men were in custody and expected to be arraigned Wednesday. They include Mullet and sons Johnny, Lester and Daniel, Tobin said.

All of the men were sleeping when the FBI and local police showed up at their homes before dawn Wednesday, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. Three men initially refused to come out of their rooms, but all seven were arrested without incident, he said.

Authorities were planning to hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon to explain why they charged the men with hate crimes, Tobin said.

The attacks came amid long-simmering tension between Mullet's group, which he established in 1995, and Amish bishops. Arlene Miller, the wife of one victim, said several bishops hadn't condoned Mullet's decision to excommunicate several members who previously left his community, saying there was no spiritual justification for his action.

I'll say it one more time. The guy's name is Mullet, and his followers go around cutting hair. As Morgan noted on the original thread, you really can't make this stuff up. I'll add that hate crime laws draw a lot of criticism, but this is precisely the sort of situation for which they exist. In a previous interview, Mullet implied that from a legal standpoint cutting hair was no big deal, when as an Amish bishop he knew full well how important hair and beards are to members of his faith. Hate crime statutes allow these sorts of religious attacks to be prosecuted based on their significance to the victims, not just on how serious they might seem to members of society at large with different beliefs.

More on the Mullet Cult

As I commented in my Amish Beard Wars post, I find it way more hilarious than I probably should that there's an Amish leader out there named Sam Mullet whose followers go around cutting hair and beards. It's as if growing up with that name draws you to bad haircuts or something. CNN has a new article up with some further information about Mullet's Amish sect that calls itself the Bergholz Clan, and the closer you look at it the more cultish it appears to be. You should read the whole thing, but some highlights are quoted below.

The CNN article features testimony from a former member, Aden Troyer, who was once married to Mullet's daughter Wilma but left the group in response to what he describes as cultish behavior on the part of its leader.

They say Mullet has created rules and punishments for breaking those rules that Amish folks had never heard of before.

The Amish typically resolve disputes within their community without the interference of law enforcement. But they say Mullet takes this to a whole new level.

"The way he's been treating and talking to people, he is not an Amish guy," Troyer said. "He is not your typical peaceful, loving Amish person."

Troyer said he eventually realized what he was getting caught up in and moved away from Mullet's compound, along with his two daughters.

There's a problem: Wilma did not. Three years after their marriage in 2004, the couple divorced, and Troyer received full custody of the girls.

Amish Beard Wars

Here's one of those stories that you just don't expect to see. The Amish, whose religion is normally based on humility and non-violence, are in the middle of a conflict that has already claimed the beards and hair of far too many. Apparently within the Amish community a bishop has arisen who fancies himself some sort of cult leader and has been ordering his followers to attack their fellows, returning with cut hair as proof that they carried out the attacks as instructed.

The attacks are meant to be degrading because Amish women do not typically cut their hair and married men usually grow beards as part of their religion, which traditionally shuns many modern amenities. The feud is believed to be the result of unspecified "spiritual differences," according to the Tribune-Chronicle.

The local sheriff, Frank Abdalla, explained to the paper just how serious the attacks are: "One Amish man told me he’d rather be dead than have his beard cut off."

Local police say that several of the victims have suffered minor injuries, although no charges have been filed, largely because of their reluctance to file police complaints. Community members have, however, reached out to the local sheriff in a bid to end the violence, and investigators intend to file charges of assault and burglary, according to the AP.

According to the Tribune, the group allegedly behind the violence is led by bishop Sam Mullet, who requires his follower to bring back clippings of hair as "proof" that the attacks are carried out. Attackers are both male and female, and in at least one instance have been sent to the homes of close relatives within the main Amish community.

So this guy is commanding his followers to go out and cut hair, and his name is actually Mullet. That's priceless. Still, it just goes to show that even a strict religious system like that of the Amish has its share of crazies. Now that charges are being pressed, hopefully Mullet will wind up in jail before he can harm anyone else.

UPDATE: Ohio police are moving quickly and have started making arrests related to these attacks. It sounds like Mullet himself, though, remains at large.