The
Justice Department has announced that a federal grand jury in Cleveland
returned a 10-count superseding indictment in United States v. Mullet, et al.
The superseding indictment charges 10 men and six women, all residents of Ohio,
with federal crimes arising out of a series of religiously-motivated assaults
on practitioners of the Amish religion.
The
superseding indictment addresses five separate assaults that occurred between
September and November of 2011, and obstructive conduct related to those assaults.
In each assault, defendants forcibly removed beard and head hair from
practitioners of the Amish faith with whom they had ongoing religious
disputes.
As set forth in the superseding indictment, the manner in which
Amish men wear their beards and Amish women wear their hair are symbols of
their faith. The superseding indictment adds four defendants, Lovina
Miller, Kathryn Miller, Emma Miller and Elizabeth Miller, who had not
previously been charged. The indictment
also
adds
charges against some of the defendants for the concealment and destruction of
evidence, including a disposable camera, shears and a bag of hair from victims
of the attacks, as well as a charge against Samuel Mullet Sr., for false
statements he allegedly made to federal agents during the investigation.
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