Amish brothers charged in Allen and DeKalb counties with child sex crimes

WARNING: Subject matter is disturbing and not for children or vulnerable adults.

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. --Two brothers, members of an area Amish community, are scheduled to be sentenced July 6 in Allen County after taking plea deals on charges of child sex crimes in Allen County.

James Graber, 29, of Spencerville, and his brother Chris A. Graber, 33, of Grabill, have pending related  cases in DeKalb County. 

Chris Graber also has a pending case in Allen County set for a three-day trial beginning July 7, the day after he is sentenced for the first one.

Chris A. Graber (l) and James Graber, brothers

A deputy prosecutor has told The Probable Cause the cases concern two victims in both counties.

In May, James Graber pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor, a Level 4 felony that carries a sentence between two to 12 years.

The plea agreement calls for “no more than four years” to be served in prison.

According to court documents for the Allen County case, James molested a female relative when the victim visited the home he shared with his family, but there were other places,too. The incidents occurred between January 2020 and February 2022 when the victim was 14 to 16 years old.

“He did it ‘a lot’,” the victim told Det. J. Bleeke of the Allen County Police Department, an arm of the Allen County Sheriff’s Department. 

In DeKalb County, James is charged with Felony 4 sexual misconduct and is scheduled to face a jury starting Aug. 12, Judge Adam Squiller presiding.

In Allen County, Chris A. Graber pleaded guilty to a Level 3 rape charge that calls for no more than nine years in prison. The plea agreement allows for the dismissal of two Level 1 felonies for child molesting and another Level 4 child molesting.

In the probable cause for the plea case against him, between January 2017 and January 2020 Chris Graber forced his victim in to sexual intercourse.

The victim, between the ages of 13 and 16 years old, recalled one evening when she, Chris Graber and another family member were watching a movie at the Graber family home, court documents said. 

He “laid down beside her” and “started ‘going all over her body’ with his hands.” Then he performed a sex act on her and a couple of days after that, “the defendant took her to his bedroom at night and proceeded to have sex with her.” 

Multiple occurrences took place in the home or in the barn, she said in court documents.

In the Allen County case, yet to be adjudicated, the victim accuses Chris Graber of molesting her between the ages of 12 and 15 from December 2012 to October 2016.

The victim said Chris Graber forced her upstairs to the loft area at the harness shop at her grandparents’ home where he partially unclothed her and sexually assaulted her.

“The defendant then told the Victim not to tell anyone otherwise she would ‘regret it’,” court documents said.

The final episode also occurred in the harness shop when she was 15, but this time she was able to get away before he performed a sex act on her. She remembered that she had a little camera with her and he “took it away from her because he did not want anyone to see the light from the camera,” court documents said.

Chris Graber is facing four charges in DeKalb County similar to the pending case Allen County. The charges date to 2012 before charges were changed to numerical. The charges are under the old style alphabetical charges: three felony B charges for child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor and rape with a Felony D for sexual battery when the victim was compelled to submit to touching.

Chris Graber’s DeKalb case in front of Judge Adam Squiller is set to start Aug. 12, the same day that his brother’s trial starts there.

Allen County deputy prosecutor Rebecca Grove is prosecuting the Allen County cases; DeKalb County prosecutor Neal Blythe in DeKalb. Gregory Ridenour has been retained as the brothers’ attorney.

That they are members of the Amish community has been confirmed by three sources.