Kansas cult leaders convicted of forcing youngsters to work 16-hour days with out pay

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Six members of a Kansas-based cult have been convicted in a scheme to deal with youngsters in overcrowded, rodent-infested amenities and power them to work as much as 16 hours a day with out pay whereas subjecting them to beatings and different abuse.

The defendants have been both high-ranking members of the group previously often called the United Nation of Islam and the Worth Creators, or have been wives of the late founder, Royall Jenkins, the U.S. Division of Justice mentioned Monday in saying the decision.

After a 26-day trial, jurors convicted all six defendants of conspiracy to commit pressured labor. One of many six, Kaaba Majeed, 50, additionally was convicted of 5 counts of pressured labor.

“Below the guise of false pretenses and coercion, these victims, a few of whom have been as younger as eight years outdated, endured inhumane and abhorrent situations,” FBI Particular Agent Stephen Cyrus mentioned in a written assertion.

Prosecutors mentioned the group, which was labeled a cult by a federal decide in 2018, beat youngsters and imposed extreme dietary restrictions. One of many victims was held the wrong way up over prepare tracks as a result of he wouldn’t admit to stealing meals when he was hungry, prosecutors mentioned. One other sufferer resorted to consuming water from a bathroom as a result of she was so thirsty.

Jenkins, who died in 2021, had been a member of the Nation of Islam until 1978, when he based the separate United Nation of Islam. He persuaded his followers that he was proven the correct approach to rule the Earth after being “taken via the galaxy by aliens on a spaceship,” in accordance with the indictment. At one level, the group had a whole bunch of followers.

Prosecutors mentioned that starting in October 2000, the group ran companies resembling gasoline stations, bakeries and eating places in a number of states utilizing unpaid labor from group members and their youngsters.

Dad and mom have been inspired to ship their youngsters to an unlicensed faculty in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, known as the College of Arts and Logistics of Civilization, which didn’t present acceptable instruction in most topics.

As a substitute, among the baby victims labored in companies in Kansas Metropolis, whereas others have been trafficked to companies in different states, together with New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia and North Carolina, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors mentioned the kids lived in overcrowded amenities usually overrun with mildew, mice and rats. There have been strict guidelines about what they might learn, how they dressed and what they ate. Some have been pressured to endure colonics. Punishments included being locked in a darkish, scary basement, prosecutors mentioned.

They have been informed they’d burn in “everlasting hellfire” in the event that they left.

In Could 2018, U.S. Choose Daniel Crabtree called the group a cult and ordered it to pay $8 million to a girl who mentioned she spent 10 years performing unpaid labor.

Sentencing hearings are set for February within the baby labor case. The convictions carry sentences of as much as 20 years in jail for Majeed and as much as 5 years for the opposite defendants: Yunus Rassoul, 39; James Staton, 62; Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49; Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43; and Dana Peach, 60.

Emails looking for remark have been despatched Tuesday to attorneys for all six defendants.

Two different co-defendants beforehand pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit pressured labor.