Amish Beard-Cutting Attacks

The leader of a dissident Amish sect was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of bizarre beard- and hair-cutting attacks on other Ohio Amish. Samuel Mullet Sr., 67, the leader, was sentenced in Federal District Court in Cleveland for coordinating assaults that prosecutors argued were motivated by religious intolerance. Fifteen of his followers, including six women, were given lesser sentences, ranging from one year and one day to seven years. The breakaway Amish were convicted last year of multiple counts of conspiracy and hate crimes, which carry harsher punishment than simple assault. The series of attacks in 2011 spread fear through Amish communities in eastern Ohio. Followers of Samuel Mullet broke into homes, restrained men and women, and forcibly sheared their victims, sometimes with tools used to clip horse manes. For Amish, descendants of 18th-century German-speaking immigrants, long beards and flowing women’s hair represent religious devotion and cultural identity. Prosecutors argued that because of the religious symbolism of the attacks, they were hate crimes.