It's been nearly three and a half years since word began to seep out of Jefferson County, Ohio that some members of a break-away, rogue Amish sect were being arrested for hair- and beard-cutting incidents.
Monday afternoon, the 16 eventually convicted and sentenced in federal court in September 2012 will be re-sentenced. They were all convicted of hate crimes, conspiracy and other charges.
In August 2014, the Sixth District Court of Appeals overturned the sentencing, saying that the original sentences for the 16 didn't distinguish between their hate crimes convictions and convictions on other charges related to the forced cutting of beards and hair of seven people.
Eight of the 16 already have served their sentences and can't be returned to prison.
It was back in October, 2011 that Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla started the arrests after reports that members of the Amish Bergholz clan visited other Amish and terrorized them by cutting their hair and beards. Eventually the local charges were dropped and federal charges were made, allowing federal authorities and prosecutors to handle the cases.
Amish men believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry. Cutting an Amish man's beard or a woman's hair is considered a grave insult, as the hair and beard are considered religious symbols of Amish commitment to their religion and lifestyle.
It was unusual for the Amish bishops not to deal with their own problems but they decided to ask for outside help, which eventually involved federal authorities and the FBI.
A lot of the focus of the trials of the 16 centered on Samuel Mullet Sr., the leader and head of the Bergholz clan, a community founded by Mullet in 1995. There were about 120 people living there and, of the 18 families, 17 are related to Mullet.
In October 2011, just six weeks before his own arrest, Mullet told WKYC during an interview at his farm. "I'm not worried," Sam Mullet, Sr. "They've been after me since what, 2003, trying to put me in jail or in a mental institution."
Just over a month later, Mullet and six other men from his 120-member sect, including three of his own sons, were arrested just outside Bergholz, and were taken to a federal prison near Youngstown.
They were accused of plotting and carrying out beard and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish.
"They say I did but they don't believe anything I say," Mullet said, in the October 2011 interview, admitting then that he was a target of the investigation, "because I'm the oldest here and I'm the bishop, I'm responsible."
A 20-page federal affidavit details a number of hair- and beard-cutting attacks across Eastern Ohio, some taking place even after a number of the so-called Bergholz clan had already been charged with kidnapping and burglary for the attacks.
The hate crime charges carried 10-year prison terms, possibly longer, because they allege religious hatred or intolerance were behind them.
"Nobody in this nation and in the community has the right to assault another individual based upon their religious beliefs, or based upon your religious beliefs," announced Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
The arrest of Samuel Mullet Sr culminated a years-long battle between the outcast Amish bishop and Abdalla.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's not Amish," an intense Abdalla said, at a news conference. "He just dresses Amish."
"It's not Amish to sit there and watch children who have been sexually abused, a 12-year-old girl who has been brutalized and raped," Abdalla continued. "That's not Amish religion."
Mullet was not charged with any sex crimes, but the affidavit did include evidence that he ordered members of his sect to beat one another for disobeying him, that others were forced to live in the community's chicken coop, and that he had sex with married women in the community for religious reasons.
"It's not religion to have your own daughters beat your wife, beat their mother. That's not religious. That's not Amish religion," Abdalla continued, until he was cut off by other law enforcement officials.
Mullet referred often to his long-running feud with Abdalla during his October 2011 interview with WKYC.
"He has to do what he has to do, and I have to do what I have to do," Mullet said, alluding to Abdalla's duty to uphold civil laws, and Mullet's perceived duty to enforce the religious laws he sets for his followers.
"It's all religion. That's why we can't understand why the sheriff has his nose in our business," Mullet stated in October 2011. "It started with us excommunicating members that weren't listening or obeying our laws. That's where it all started. I didn't know the courts could stick their nose in religion, but that seems what they did here."
Abdalla said Mullet's arrest and the seriousness of the charges against him and the six members of his breakaway sect calmed the fears of peaceful Amish in a number of surrounding counties.
"We've received hundreds and hundreds of calls from people living in fear. They're buying mace. Some are sitting with shotguns, getting locks on their doors because of Sam Mullet. Sam Mullet is evil," Abdalla said.
Back in October 2011, when news of the beard-cutting attacks was just beginning to break, Mullet told WKYC that he had the right to enforce religious discpline and punishment on members of his community.
He said he did not order the beard-cutting attacks, but that he knew about them.
"I don't work any different than any other bishop,but I'm pointed out and held way up here for being the meanest one of the bunch," Mullet told WKYC.
The original FBI affidavit detailed four hair-cutting attacks. The attacks occurred against a couple in Trumbull County on Sept. 6, 2011; on Oct. 4, 2011 against a man and his son in Holmes County; later on Oct. 4, 2011 against a man in Carroll County; and on Nov. 9, 2011 against a man allegedly lured to the Mullet complex in Jefferson County.
The affidavit said Johnny, Lester and Daniel Mullet and Levi and Eli Miller all confessed in early October 2011 to taking part in at least a couple of the attacks.
Johnny Mullet told detectives that it was his idea to cut the hair and beards and that he discussed the idea with his father, who gave him the addresses of two victims, the affidavit said.
