In November the FBI arrested 10 and two women from the village of Bergholz outside of Steubenville.   In March 4 more women were indicted as accomplices.  U.S. attorney Steven Dettlebach said the attacks were religiously motivated under the direction of 66 year old Sam Mullet, a bishop,  in what has been called a splinter group of the Amish.  Mullet has been described as a cult leader who punished members who didn’t not follow his strict interpretations of the Amish religion.  He’s also accused of requiring some female members to have sex with him.

Judge Polster rejected defense arguments that the hair cutting was permissible punishment within a religion and not a hate crime.  The judge compared the alleged assaults to and orthodox Jew attacking a non-orthodox Jew or a Sunni Muslim attacking a Shiite.  Polster also rejected defense arguments that prosecutors not discuss Mullet’s sexual acts with members. That could mean that some Amish women may have to testify in the 18^th floor courtroom about their sexual relationships.

Defense attorneys, and there are 16 of them, were successful in asking that the government’s attorneys be forbidden from calling Mullet and his followers a cult or a splinter group.  The Amish group themselves in small parishes or districts in which the bishop sets the rules.