Members of Cult Headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas Found Guilty of Child Labor Violations

A Kansas jury found six former members of a nationwide cult guilty Monday of forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor, federal authorities said.

Kaaba Majeed, 50; Yunus Rassoul, 39; James Staton, 62; Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49; Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43; and Dana Peach, 60, were each convicted for their roles in enforcing child labor practices by way of physical, emotional and psychological abuse, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Three of the defendants were previously high-ranking members of the United Nation of Islam, while three were wives of the cult’s founder, Royall Jenkins.

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The KCK branch included an unlicensed organization that was billed as a boarding school for children from across the United States, but was actually a forced work program for children ages 8 to 16.

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Under the custody of cult members, the young victims worked upwards of 16 hours a day without pay in businesses including restaurants, gas stations, bakeries, laboratories and clothing factories, according to the federal indictment. The six defendants also forced the children to work in their own homes as unpaid cleaners and child care workers.

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In order to enforce the illegal labor practices and conditions, the defendants and other UNOI members meted out corporal punishment, including forcing some of the children to undergo colonics, according to the federal indictment. {snip}

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