PLYMOUTH (WBSM) — The Twelve Tribes religious organization in Plymouth is under the microscope following the conviction of one of its members, Nehemya Smith, for multiple child rapes and indecent assaults.

Smith will serve up to 40 years in prison for his actions, which occurred at properties owned by Twelve Tribes, but people want to know – how much could the group have known about his crimes as they were happening?

One expert thinks we may never know, considering the group’s culture of silence when it comes to the law and its history, he said, of child abuse.

Rick Ross is the Executive Director of the Cult Education Institute and has researched Twelve Tribes extensively and worked with those who have escaped from the group. He recently appeared on WBSM to offer insight into the group he and others have designated as a cult.

“What they’re all about is a guy by the name of Gene Spriggs started this group in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the 1970s,” Ross said. “Spriggs considered himself a prophet and created this group, which has multiple communities across the United States and internationally.”

The name refers to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and Ross described the group as “very authoritarian.”

Ross said Twelve Tribes has a number of businesses such as the Yellow Deli, Mate Teas, pubs, and are also involved in flipping real estate.

They operate these businesses, he said, through questionable labor practices, forcing members to work in exchange for room and board.

“People who staff these businesses are members of the group, working for nothing more than room and board,” Ross said. “This is a group that is worth millions and millions of dollars in accumulated assets and businesses. That money is basically managed by the leaders in the group.”

Ross said those who join Twelve Tribes have to surrender all of their possessions, and if they decide to eventually leave, those possessions are not given back – meaning those who depart the group do so with only the clothes on their back.

“The general membership, who are very dedicated people, are deeply indoctrinated and committed. They work earnestly but they don’t receive the kind of compensation that you would expect that they would,” he said.

He also said the group has a history of abusing children.

“They were busted for illegal labor violations in New York State, where they were working children unsafely, and they have a long history of treating children very badly,” he said.

“They encourage parents to beat their children,” he said. “They will take sticks and dip them in resin and beat the children. One parent I worked with fled the group because she no longer was willing to do that with her own children.”

LISTEN: Cult expert Rick Ross on Twelve Tribes

Samie Brosseau runs an organization called Liberation Point, helping others escape from cults like she herself did, escaping from Twelve Tribes at the age of 18. In a 2020 interview on the radio program Midnight Society with Tim Weisberg, Brosseau detailed how Twelve Tribes ingratiates itself into local communities.

“They come in with this kind and generous sort of presentation of trying to rebuild the communities,” she said. “They sell themselves as a very utopian community that provides love, inviting people in for Friday night dinners. They’re very welcoming and warm – until you get into the nitty gritty.”

Brosseau, who detailed being physically and emotionally abused for years before finally fleeing, said her own father later told her, “You’re no longer my daughter” after her escape. At the time of the interview, Brosseau’s sister was still part of the Twelve Tribes branch living in a compound in Plymouth.

LISTEN: Samie Brosseau on Escaping the Twelve Tribes Cult

Ross said he has worked with multiple people who have left the group or even been removed by the FBI, including a boy who said he was molested at around the age of 10 and punished when he complained about it.

Ross said that he wouldn’t say that child sexual abuse is “inherent in the group,” but said that “they do have a history of ignoring complaints” and refusing to go to the authorities if someone reports abuse within the community.

He also said other people in the group may not have been aware of Smith’s actions, but that because the children are homeschooled and don’t have much contact with the outside world, it creates “a very insular community.”

“So this is just a deeply problematic group with a history of problems – abuses, really. Child neglect and child abuse,” he said.

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