/ CBS/AP
Child labor violations up 283% since 2015
Six members of a Kansas-based cult have been convicted in a scheme to house children in overcrowded, rodent-infested facilities and force them to work up to 16 hours a day without pay while subjecting them to beatings and other abuse. The children, prosecutors say, were told they would burn in "eternal hellfire" if they left.
The defendants were either high-ranking members of the organization formerly known as the United Nation of Islam and the Value Creators, or were wives of the late founder, Royall Jenkins, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday in announcing the verdict.
After a 26-day trial, jurors convicted all six defendants of conspiracy to commit forced labor. One of the six, Kaaba Majeed, 50, also was convicted of five counts of forced labor.
"Under the guise of false pretenses and coercion, these victims, some of whom were as young as eight years old, endured inhumane and abhorrent conditions," FBI Special Agent Stephen Cyrus said in a written statement.
Prosecutors said the group, which was labeled a cult by a federal judge in 2018, beat children and imposed severe dietary restrictions. One of the victims was held upside down over train tracks because he would not admit to stealing food when he was hungry, prosecutors said. Another victim resorted to drinking water from a toilet because she was so thirsty.
Jenkins, who died in 2021, had been a member of the Nation of Islam until 1978, when he founded the separate United Nation of Islam. He persuaded his followers that he was shown the proper way to rule the Earth after being "taken through the galaxy by aliens on a spaceship," according to the indictment. At one point, the group had hundreds of followers.
Prosecutors said that beginning in October 2000, the organization ran businesses such as gas stations, bakeries and restaurants in several states using unpaid labor from group members and their children.
Parents were encouraged to send their children to an unlicensed school in Kansas City, Kansas, called the University of Arts and Logistics of Civilization, which did not provide appropriate instruction in most subjects.
Instead, some of the child victims worked in businesses in Kansas City, while others were trafficked to businesses in other states, including New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia and North Carolina, the indictment alleges.
"The victims all lived in deplorable conditions, in overcrowded facilities often overrun with mold, mice and rats," prosecutors said.
There were strict rules about what they could read, how they dressed and what they ate, prosecutors said. Some were forced to undergo colonics. Punishments included being locked in a dark, frightening basement, prosecutors said.
They were told they would burn in "eternal hellfire" if they left.
"In contrast, the defendants and their immediate families lived comfortably," prosecutors said.
In May 2018, U.S. Judge Daniel Crabtree called the group a cult and ordered it to pay $8 million to a woman who said she spent 10 years performing unpaid labor.
Sentencing hearings are set for February in the child labor case. The convictions carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison for Majeed and up to five years for the other defendants: Yunus Rassoul, 39; James Staton, 62; Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49; Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43; and Dana Peach, 60.
Emails seeking comment were sent Tuesday to attorneys for all six defendants.
Two other co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labor.
"The United Nation of Islam and these defendants held themselves out as a beacon of hope for the community, promising to educate and teach important life skills to members, particularly children," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Instead, the defendants betrayed this trust, exploiting young children in the organization by callously compelling their labor."