SWAT Team Serves Child Custody Order in Amish Country

Service of papers is not typically a colorful topic. But there are exceptions to every generalization.

In Ohio, a mother was served with a child custody order requiring her to turn her 9 and 21 month old babies over to their father. She was served at the school where she teaches.

The sheriff arrived with a juvenile detective. And a SWAT team.

According to one account, the SWAT team was armed with automatic machine guns, a battering ram and surrounded the school as soon as they arrived. According to the sheriff, only two members of the SWAT team got out of their vehicle.

The school was in an Amish community. And the mother is the daughter of the bishop of the community.

The sheriff defended his actions with reports of threatened violence by the Amish if the authorities persisted in investigations of alleged sex crimes within the Amish community.

The served mother promptly left the school and headed to her farm, with the sheriff and the SWAT team in pursuit.

The children were handed over to authorities by a relative.

Read more in this Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register article: Hearing Set In Amish Raid and this WTOV9 TV news article: Amish Couple Appears In Court For Child Custody Dispute.

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