CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Discovery Channel's "Amish Mafia" star Merlin showed up at the U.S. District Courthouse Monday for the re-sentencing of 16 members of the Amish Bergholz clan, convicted in 2011 on five hair- and beard-cutting incidents.
UPDATE: Just after 3:30 p.m. Monday, Judge Dan Polster re-sentenced Amish cult leader Samuel Mullet Sr. to 129 months in prison, down from the original sentence of 180 months.
He re-sentenced Amish cult members Johnny Mullet to 60 months; Lester Mullet to 60 months; Levi Miller to 60 months; Eli Miller to 60 months; Lester Miller to 43 months; Emanuel Schrock to 43 months; and Daniel Miller to 43 months.
The remaining eight members -- all women -- were re-sentenced to time already served.
Bergholz is in Jefferson County, Ohio, about 114 miles from Cleveland.
While most Amish keep their crime and punishment inside the Amish community, the 2011 attacks were reported to Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla and the 16 were ultimately tried in federal court by federal prosecutors.
The Discovery Channel show took a different twist. In a capsule description of "Amish Mafia," as the Discovery Channel wrote:
Untrusting of outside law enforcement, some Amish in Lancaster County, PA have for many years regularly turned to a small organized group of men for protection and justice. The series provides a first-ever look at the men who protect and maintain peace and order within the Amish community in Lancaster. The 2006 School shootings in Lancaster County during which five young Amish girls were killed and five more seriously injured by a non-Amish milk truck driver brought to the nation's attention the vulnerabilities of the Amish community, and their need for continued protection.
"Amish Mafia" should not be confused with the series "Breaking Amish," on The Learning Channel.
According to TLC:
The reality series "Breaking Amish" provides a unique look into the lives of young men and women who break free from their Amish or Mennonite traditions to pursue dreams of an "English" life in New York City and Brooklyn, N.Y. They get to wear jeans, use electricity, and spend time in places that serve alcohol -- all first-time experiences for them -- but taking advantage of Western luxuries has its disadvantages. The cast members likely will be abandoned by their families if they commit to living full-time on the outside, and even if they return to their previous lifestyles, they risk being shunned by their community altogether. The choice is theirs, and they know it comes with potential lifelong consequences.
What happened with the Bergholz cult members is not ususual. The Amish usually settlle their differences under the auspices of the local Amish bishop.
Going to county authorities was a big step for the Amish victims? It was doubly so because Samuel Mullet Sr. is an Amish bishop, someone who oversaw punishment.
But Mullet Sr. was not unknown to local authorities wll before the 2011 incidents.
The November 2011 arrest of the Bergholz 'cult' leader Samuel Mullet Sr. culminated a years-long battle between the outcast Amish bishop and local Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's not Amish," an intense Abdalla said. "He just dresses Amish."
"It's not Amish to sit there and watch children who have been sexually abused, a 12-year-old girl who has been brutalized and raped," Abdalla continued. "That's not Amish religion."
Mullet was not charged with any sex crimes, but the federal affidavit did include evidence that he ordered members of his sect to beat one another for disobeying him, that others were forced to live in the community's chicken coop, and that he had sex with married women in the community for religious reasons.
"It's not religion to have your own daughters beat your wife, beat their mother. That's not religious. That's not Amish religion," Abdalla went on.
Mullet referred often to his long-running feud with Abdalla during his October 2011 interview with WKYC.
"He has to do what he has to do, and I have to do what I have to do," Mullet said, alluding to Abdalla's duty to uphold civil laws, and Mullet's perceived duty to enforce the religious laws he sets for his followers.
"It's all religion. That's why we can't understand why the sheriff has his nose in our business," Mullet stated. "It started with us excommunicating members that weren't listening or obeying our laws. That's where it all started. I didn't know the courts could stick their nose in religion, but that seems what they did here."
Abdalla said Mullet's arrest and the seriousness of the charges against him and the six members of his breakaway sect have calmed the fears of peaceful Amish in a number of surrounding counties.
"We've received hundreds and hundreds of calls from people living in fear. They're buying mace. Some are sitting with shotguns, getting locks on their doors because of Sam Mullet. Sam Mullet is evil," Abdalla said.
