Amish dad: Don't send young daughter's molester to prison

WARREN

The father of an Amish girl who was sexually assaulted by fellow Amish man Norman Mullet asked prosecutors not to send Mullet to jail.

The father also would have asked Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for a non-prison penalty, but Judge Logan declined to let him speak during Mullet’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Instead, Judge Logan imposed a 12-month prison sentence, and Mullet was led away in handcuffs to begin serving his sentence.

Mullet, 35, of state Route 87 in Mesopotamia, pleaded guilty in March to three counts of gross sexual imposition for having sexual contact with a 10-year-old girl from October 2009 to October 2010.

Mullet will also serve five years of probation and will have to register as a sex offender every six months for 25 years after he leaves prison.

Thad Wexler with the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, told Judge Logan before sentencing that members of the Amish community have tried to help Mullet, are supporting him and are “looking to get him into a program in Indiana.”

Assistant county Prosecutor Gabe Wildman, who also prosecuted Daniel Miller of West Farmington in 2013 on 17 sex crimes against seven girls age 4 to 14, said it can be difficult to prosecute criminal cases involving the Amish because they frequently don’t cooperate with authorities.

Miller got a life prison sentence with parole eligibility after 20 years after being convicted of five counts of rape, 11 counts of molestation and one count of sexual battery, which is similar to rape.