Jailed Amish Not Allowed To Attend Wedding On Thanksgiving

A jailed Amish group won’t be able to attend a wedding on Thanksgiving after an Ohio judge ruled that they must remain behind bars.

The Amish defendants were being held for sentencing after an attack on fellow Amish in which they cut beards and trimmed hair. As NBC News reported, Federal Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland ruled that the jailed Amish would not be allowed to attend a wedding planned for Thursday.

Five of the jailed Amish had made a request to be released, though seven of the other defendants are already free pending sentencing. Prosecutors had contended that if the jailed Amish were released to attend the wedding, they could become fugitives or harm others in the community.

As The Associated Press noted, the Amish seeking jail furloughs “participated in late-night violent assaults on unsuspecting victims, some of whom were family members,” the government said in opposing the release. “They have shown no remorse for their conduct and were even recorded talking about how they would have committed even more assaults had they known that they would be arrested.”

The Amish had already been convicted in last year’s attacks, though those convictions are in the process of being appealed. Prosecutors say that the bride and groom themselves are “unindicted co-conspirators” in the crime, and that the bride joked about the possibility of more assaults during a phone call with her jailed brother.

The jailed Amish members are not allowed to attend the wedding in the eastern Ohio town of Berzgholz. Those seeking release include two brothers and an uncle of the bride.