Beard Cutting Amish Clan Can’t Leave Jail for Wedding
Five incarcerated Amish people requested to leave jail to attend an out-of-town wedding on Thanksgiving Day, according to information made available on Nov. 21, 2012. A federal judge in Cleveland, the Honorable Dan Polster, declined the Amish defendants’ plea to watch the bride and groom say their vows in person on Thursday. The judge cited a potential flight risk or possible danger to others, reported MSNBC.
A group of Amish men and women stand accused of forcibly cutting the beards and hair of other members of the Amish community in 2011. Several of the victims, which included men, women and the elderly, were injured by the eight-inch horse mane-cutting shears that was used in the beard-cutting and hair-cutting attacks.
The defendants, Amish bishop Samuel Mullet Sr. and 15 of his followers, including the five jailed Amish who can’t attend the wedding, are part of a breakaway Amish sect called the Bergholz clan.