By David Lohr
December 11, 2007
CRAWFORD COUNTY, PA (Crime Library) — Convicted wife murderer Edward Gingerich, 40, the first Amish man ever convicted of murder, and two of his brothers, were all sentenced last week in connection to charges they received for interfering with the custody of Gingerich's daughter.
In October, Edward Gingerich entered a " no-contest" plea to criminal conspiracy to commit concealment of the whereabouts of a child, a second-degree misdemeanor. In exchange for his plea, Crawford County District Attorney Francis Schultz dropped two felony charges against Gingerich; concealment of the whereabouts of a child and criminal conspiracy. Gingerich's brothers, Atlee D. Gingerich, 44, and Joseph Gingerich, 43, also entered "no contest" pleas to the same charge in order to avoid going to trial.
 |
| Atlee and Joseph Gingerich |
On December 5, Judge John Spataro sentenced Edward, Atlee and Joseph Gingerich to six months of probation and ordered them each to pay a $500 fine. Per the guidelines of their sentencing, all three men were ordered to have no further contact with their parents, Dannie and Mary Gingerich, or Edward Gingerich's daughter, Mary Gingerich.
Last weeks court hearing stems from an incident that occurred on April 18, when Edward Gingerich's son, Daniel, took over the reins of a buggy in which his sister Mary was riding with their aunt, and navigated it to his Uncle Atlee's house. Once there, Edward Gingerich, his son, Eno, and his brothers, Joseph, 43, and Atlee, 44, locked Mary's aunt inside the barn and coerced Mary to go with them to an undisclosed location. The men allegedly told Mary that she had to cooperate or they would call the police, and she would be forced to go with them. She reluctantly agreed, perhaps more out of fear than from a sense of cooperation, and left with her father in a black sedan.
The following day, Spataro granted Mary's grandparents, Dannie and Mary Gingerich, temporary custody of Mary. The court order said that Gingerich was to turn his daughter over to them immediately and that he was to have no further contact with her until the matter was resolved in a court of law. The Pennsylvania State Police then arrested Joseph and Atlee on charges of criminal conspiracy.
 |
| Edward Gingerich |
Three days later, troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Kane received information that Gingerich and his daughter were at a camp in McKean County. When troopers arrived on the scene Gingerich was arrested and Mary was reunited with her grandparents.
According to John Otto, a New Order Amishman living in Crawford County, Edward, Joe, and Atlee, have been excommunicated from their Amish community. Excommunication generally means that other members of the congregation are prohibited from having contact with them, on both social and business levels; however, the severity of the sanction varies, based upon the factors surrounding the decision.
"Anybody from the Brownhill Amish who accepts Ed will be shunned," Otto said in a recent interview with Post-gazette.com.
Next Page
default
increase
decrease
email
print