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Amish Leader Samuel Mullet Will Use Home Electricity to Get Out of Jail

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on January 25, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

The man accused of masterminding the Ohio Amish beard-cutting attacks made a request last week. Samuel Mullet wanted to be out on bail.

A judge declined to release Mullet on bond earlier in January. Electronic monitoring would be difficult because his Amish home had no electricity.

But now it seems Mullet is willing to concede. He would allow the installation of electronics in his home. This means he could wear an electronic monitoring device.

Mullet's defense attorney Edward G. Bryan filed the motion. Bryan wrote that it's not that the Amish thought electricity was "evil." Electricity is fine. It's the effects of electronics can be considered bad.

Most of them lead to what may be considered "idle time." Electronic devices can also reduce a person's reliance on community members. Bryan wrote that these effects are shunned by the Amish, according to the Huffington Post.

This seems especially true of most new tech gadgets. Don't believe me? Think about what you're doing right now. You're reading a blog. You're not socializing with anybody. You're probably cooped up at home. You're also not doing work -- unless blog-reading is a new type of profession.

Not only that, but you probably spent some time on Facebook today. Maybe you checked your email, or played with your iPhone. Perhaps you also spent some time perusing YouTube.

Yeah, electronics do lead to mind-numbingly boring idleness.

Prosecutors still maintain that Mullet should be denied bail. They say that electronic monitoring wasn't the only issue. Mullet allegedly threatened his "enemies," some of his children, and the local sheriff.

He also reportedly plotted more beard-cutting attacks. So will Samuel Mullet's bail request be granted? Only time will tell. A judge may decide that the electronic monitoring is enough.

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