Free Republic

MILLERSBURG, Ohio - The leader of a breakaway Amish group allowed the beatings of those who disobeyed him, made some members sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to "cleanse them," federal authorities said as they charged him and six others with hate crimes in hair-cutting attacks against other Amish. Authorities raided the group's compound in eastern Ohio on Wednesday morning and arrested seven men, including group leader Sam Mullet and three of his sons. Several members of the group carried out the attacks in September and October by forcefully cutting the beards and hair...

FBI agents on Wednesday raided an Ohio compound and arrested seven Amish men on hate charges in connection with haircutting attacks on other members of the usually isolated Christian religion. [. . .] All are charged with conspiring to carry out a series of assaults over the last few months on Amish men and women, cutting off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers. The acts were especially heinous to the Amish who believe there is a biblical injunction to shaving when men marry. If convicted, the suspects face up to life in prison, the government said.