In a document filed in federal court seeking to prevent Mullet’s release, Thomas Getz, an assistant U.S. attorney, said: “Samuel Mullet Sr. is primarily and ultimately responsible for this series of violent attacks. They were carried out by his loyal and devoted followers, to settle his scores.”

A federal judge Wednesday (Jan. 11) refused to release the leader of an Amish splinter sect from jail on charges he orchestrated the cutting of beards of Amish men over longstanding religious disagreements.

Samuel Mullet Sr. and 11 others pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to five attacks last fall that shone an unwanted light on Ohio’s Amish community. Mullet and six others have been detained since their arrest Nov. 23 for hate crimes.

In court, Mullet and his followers appeared downcast during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster. Mullet and six others wore bright orange jail uniforms and were shackled at the wrists or legs.

In the back of the courtroom, a dozen Amish women wearing identical long green skirts, scarves and coats watched the hearing. Afterward, one of them cried softly.

Federal authorities say the attacks last fall were motivated by revenge after a group of Amish bishops refused to accept Mullet’s excommunication of eight families who had left his community in 2005 or 2006 because they disagreed with his authoritarian leadership. Prosecutors said nine people were either hurt or disfigured.

The FBI said in an affidavit that Mullet, 66, forced wayward followers to sleep in chicken coops for days at a time on his 800-acre farm in Bergholz, Ohio.

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