Members of a cult based in Kansas City, Kansas, found guilty of child labor violations

A jury in Kansas on Monday found six former members of a nationwide cult guilty 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 convicted for their roles in enforcing child labor through physical, emotional and psychological abuse, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

Three of the defendants were former high-ranking members of the United Nation of Islam, and three others were the wives of the cult's founder, Royall Jenkins.

The defendants were indicted in 2021 along with 48-year-old Etenia Kinard and 45-year-old Jacelyn Greenwell, who had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labor. The trial lasted 26 days, according to the press release.

In addition to a large branch in Kansas City, Kansas, the United Nation of Islam operated sects in cities such as New York City, Newark, Cincinnati, Dayton and Atlanta, according to the Justice Department.

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

The group, which once had hundreds of followers, was founded in the 1970s by Royall Jenkins. Jenkins, a former truck driver, convinced his followers that he had been “guided around the galaxy in a spaceship by aliens” and shown how to properly govern the Earth. In the 1990s, he moved the group's headquarters to KCK.

Under the care of cult members, the young victims worked up to 16 hours a day without pay in businesses such as 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.

“The victims all lived in deplorable conditions, in overcrowded facilities that were often infested with mold, mice and rats,” the Justice Department's Office of Public Affairs wrote in a press release Monday. “In contrast, the defendants and their immediate families lived comfortably.”

According to the federal government's indictment, the defendants and other UNOI members used physical punishment to enforce the illegal working conditions. Some of the children were forced to undergo enemas, for example. Other punishments included solitary confinement and isolation from the outside world. The victims were forbidden from reading, speaking to whom, and weighing, among other things.

Victims reported being beaten with a paddle, hung upside down over train tracks, struck with extension cords and forced to consume only lemon juice for days, the indictment says.

A federal judge in Kansas classified the United Nation of Islam as a cult in 2018. In the same year, US judge Daniel Crabtree ordered the payment of $8 million to Kendra Ross, who said she was forced to perform unpaid labor in the cult for ten years as a child.

The eight defendants, including Greenwell and Kinard, will appear in federal district court for sentencing on February 18. Each of them could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

This article used previous reporting by The Star's Bill Lukitsch and Luke Nozicka.