HOLMES COUNTY, OH (WOIO) -
Four of the seven members of the Amish community charged with federal hate crime charges for attacks against their fellow Amish were ordered to remain detained at their court hearing in Youngstown Wednesday.
Sam Mullet, Johnny Mullet, Daniel Mullet, and Emanuel Schrock, all of Bergholz, Ohio, appeared before Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert.
Eli Miller, Levi Miller, of Bergholz, Ohio and Lester Mullet of Hammondsville, Ohio, are not scheduled to appear in court until Friday, December 2nd.
The criminal complaint charges the men with willfully causing bodily injury to any person, or attempting to do so by use of a dangerous weapon, because of the actual or perceived religion of that person.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the arrest warrants, the defendants conspired to carry out a series of assaults against fellow Amish individuals with whom they were having a religiously-based dispute.
In doing so, the defendants forcibly restrained multiple Amish men and cut off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers, causing bodily injury to these men while also injuring others who attempted to stop the attacks. In the Amish religion, a man's beard and head hair are sacred.
The maximum potential penalty for these violations is life in prison.
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