CLEVELAND - A breakaway Amish leader charged in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish complained Monday that the government is trying to demonize him to keep him locked up, but a judge again rejected pretrial release.
U.S. Northern District Judge Dan A. Polster denied allowing Samuel Mullet Sr., 66, to be released while his case is pending in federal court. Mullet is accused of ordering 11 co-defendants to cut the beards and hair of Amish men and women.
Mullet's attorney, Edward G. Bryan, in a motion filed last week said Mullet would allow for electricity to be installed in his house in order for the court's electronically monitored house arrest program to work.
At Mullet's arraignment two weeks ago, Polster said he was uncomfortable allowing Mullet to go free on bail, especially without the house arrest option.
Prosecutors at the hearing argued Mullet was a danger to his community.
Bryan's latest motion, filed Monday, said prosecutors unfairly refer to Mullet's property in Bergholz as an 800-acre "compound."
"The government persists in its efforts to raise irrational fears regarding Samuel Mullet Sr. and his attempt to be released on bond," Bryan said in a court filing.
"Undoubtedly, the government is attempting to harken memories of Waco, Texas, where the Branch Davidians, at David Koresh's command, resisted Mr. Koresh's arrest by an armed conflict."
The federal raid on the compound left four agents and six Davidians killed in the initial gunbattle. The 51-day standoff ended when the complex burned, killing Koresh and nearly 80 of his followers.
Bryan said there is no physical compound on the land, just homes, barns, a school and a shop where his wife sells bulk food from.
He also pointed out Mullet cooperated when several of his co-defendants were arrested on state charges and when FBI agents arrested him in November.
Mullet does not have a stockpile of weapons at his property, only sport rifles which will be removed from his home as a condition of bond, had Polster allowed him out on bond, Bryan said.
All 12 defendants have pleaded not guilty. All are facing life in prison for hate crimes and five years in federal prison on the conspiracy charge. Four others, including Sam Mullet; Lester Mullet, 26, of Hammondsville; Levi Miller, 53, of Bergholz; and Lester Miller, are facing obstruction of justice charges carrying a 20-year maximum sentence.
An FBI affidavit for the group's Nov. 23 arrest said Eli Miller confessed to Holmes County Sheriff's Office investigators that he led the attack on Barbara and Martin Miller of Mesopotamia. Barbara Miller, 57, told Trumbull County Sheriff's detectives investigating the attack that she and her husband, Martin, 57, were attacked by close family members.
It's the earliest of the five documented instances, where members of Sam Mullet's group are accused of assaulting those who defected from the community, held them down and cut their hair or beards with scissors or clippers.
Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.