CLEVELAND -- Emotional testimony in the trial of an Amish bishop and 15 others charged in a series of hair and beard-cutting attacks on other Amish.
On the stand was unindicted co-conspirator Nancy Miller Burkholder testifying that she and her brothers cut their mother's hair and father's beard to save their souls.
Burkholder broke down on the stand and cried three times as she described her actions during one of the five attacks.
Most compelling though was the courage it took for a motherof six , to tell the jury how she was made to have sex with Bergholtz community Bishop Sam Mullet her own father-in-law.
Much of the courtroom was in tears as Sam Mullet's daughter-in-law describes how she was manipulated into having sex with him.
"I was afraid not to. In my mind, if this is what it takes to help Eli, I will," she testified.
Eli is the woman's husband and went to a psychatric clinic during the summer of 2008. During that time ,Sam's daughter-in-law testified the spirtual leader of Bergholtz told her, " The devil will get hold of you if you stay by yourself," she said.
So she reluctantly stayed in Mullet's house . The witness testified Sam Mullet Senior, who is more than twice her age called it marital counseling.
It started with hugs, then kisses, then sitting on his lap.
The daughter-in-law testified she wasn't the only married woman in Bergholtz that was counseled.
When she refused him, his daughter-in-law testified Mullet got angry.
"I don't understand why you don't obey me, other ladies can," she said.
Sam Mullet's son and daughter-in-law fled to Pennsylvania in the fall of that same year.
Sam Mullet is not charged with sex crimes in connection with this case. The government hopes to use such testimony to illustrate what kind of hold this Bishop had over his church members.
