American Missionary Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Molesting Haitian Boys After 17 Years of Mission Trips

A former Ohio missionary who told police seven years ago that he had molested more than 30 boys in Haiti has pleaded guilty in federal court to abusing two of them and could face a prison sentence of 25 to 33 years under his plea agreement.

Jeriah Mast, 45, of Millersburg, entered the plea on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, before Judge Donald C. Nugent in Cleveland, admitting two counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti.

He travelled there on mission work between 2002 and 2019, spending several of those years with Christian Aid Ministries, a Millersburg organisation that coordinates missionary activity for Amish, conservative Mennonite and related church groups.

The federal investigation accelerated after an Ohio judge released him early from a state prison sentence for abusing two boys in Ohio.

What Mast Pleaded Guilty to in Cleveland

The plea covers a narrow slice of what he has admitted. Mast pleaded guilty to two counts brought under a federal law that bars US citizens from travelling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct, and he had been indicted in December on four such counts relating to four different minors.

The plea agreement sets a sentencing range rather than a final number. Mast and prosecutors agreed that an appropriate sentence would fall between 25 and 33 years, though Nugent retains the final say. Sentencing is scheduled for 15 December 2026, and Mast is represented by a public defender.

His own admissions go far beyond the charges. In a 2019 interview with Holmes County authorities, Mast told investigators he had molested about 30 children in Haiti between roughly 2003 and 2019, along with four children in Ohio, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Jason M. Guyton.

Those wider admissions have not resulted in separate federal charges in this case.

The Early Release That Revived a Dormant Investigation

Tuesday was the second time Mast has pleaded guilty in a child sexual abuse case. A Holmes County court sentenced him in 2019 to nine years in prison on state charges of gross sexual imposition involving two boys in Ohio, and he served nearly six years of that term.

He was then released. In October 2025, retired Judge Edward Emmett O'Farrell of neighbouring Tuscarawas County granted Mast an early judicial release and placed him on probation, citing what the judge called an exemplary record behind bars and, most importantly in his reasoning, Mast's stated and demonstrated remorse for his crimes and for the pain he had inflicted on the child victims and their families.

U.S. authorities had previously been investigating Mast's actions in Haiti, but the probe had remained largely dormant while he was in state prison. Federal prosecutors accelerated the investigation after learning of his early release, according to federal court records.

He was arrested on federal charges in November 2025, weeks after his release, and indicted the following month.

The Ministry That Kept Him on the Job

Christian Aid Ministries also came under scrutiny over its handling of Mast's conduct before 2019. The organisation placed two of its managers on leave that year amid revelations that they had known as early as 2013 that Mast had confessed to sexual misconduct and nevertheless allowed him to continue working for the organisation.

The scandal became public after Mast returned abruptly from Haiti in 2019. The interview with Holmes County authorities that followed produced the admissions now recorded in the federal complaint. Holmes County, where the ministry is based, is the hub of one of the largest Amish settlements in the United States and has substantial Mennonite and related populations.

The ministry's Haiti operations drew international attention two years later for an unrelated reason. In 2021, a gang kidnapped 17 Christian Aid Ministries missionaries and their children in Haiti. All were eventually freed, some ransomed by a third party, and the organisation said most of the rest escaped.

Why Advocates Say Cases Like This Stay Hidden

The case has become a reference point in a wider discussion about abuse in conservative Anabaptist communities. Advocates working with survivors in those communities say a strong emphasis on forgiveness can work against victims of abuse.

Their complaint is specific rather than general. Victims, they say, have sometimes been pressured to reconcile with abusers and discouraged from seeking prosecution outside the internal disciplines of largely closed religious communities, which can leave offences to be handled by churches rather than courts.

Mast is not the first American missionary to be prosecuted over abuse in Haiti. James Daniel Arbaugh, a Mennonite missionary from Stuarts Draft, Virginia, who lived in the country for more than a decade, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to travelling from the United States to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a child.

After 17 years of trips to Haiti, Mast has pleaded guilty to two federal counts, while his 2019 admissions concerning more than 30 boys remain far broader than the conduct covered by his conviction.

If you have been affected by child sexual abuse, confidential support is available. In the US, the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is on 1-800-422-4453 and the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673. In the UK, the NSPCC can be reached on 0808 800 5000 and the National Association for People Abused in Childhood on 0808 801 0331.