South Shore cult ‘elder’ guilty of child rape to serve at least 30 years in prison

A leader of a South Shore religious sect will spend at least 30 years in prison after he was found guilty last month of raping and abusing two girls in the “tribe,” officials said.

Nehemyah Smith, 37, was convicted of all 25 charges last month, including 12 counts of aggravated child rape and multiple counts of indecent assault and battery.

Smith was sentenced in Fall River Superior Court Wednesday to 13 to 18 years in prison for rape and child rape charges. He will then serve 17 to 22 years for aggravated child rape charges with a ten year age difference, according to the court clerk.

Smith, of Plymouth, was a “trusted elder” within the Twelve Tribes, an international religious organization led by men where families give up their possessions and live communally, according to court records. The known abuse took place between 2016 and 2020.

The Twelve Tribes has communities in Milton, Raynham, Hyannis, and Plymouth, where members run a restaurant called the Yellow Deli. Smith’s victims were abused in all of those towns except Plymouth, according to court documents.

The group’s website describes it as “an emerging spiritual nation” whose members aim to live like the early disciples and follow the Old and New Testament.

An investigation from the Denver Post in 2022 described the Twelve Tribes as a cult that exploits members, pushes racist, misogynistic, and homophobic teachings, and fails to protect children from sexual abuse.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, said Twelve Tribes is a white supremacist cult that extensively beats children who misbehave and believes that homosexuality should be punished by death.

Cult elder abused at least one victim for years

The victims were both residing with their parents in the tribe when police began to investigate the allegations, according to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office. Siblings of both victims reported it to the police.

The first victim told police in 2020 that she was abused by Smith between 2016 and 2019 when she was 14 through 16 years old. According to court documents, he would digitally penetrate the girl, try to kiss her, and fondle her breasts.

“At first, Nehemyah would come to the barn and he was nice to her,” before he began to assault her. The victim said he did not penetrate her with his penis.

“(She) decided to tell her sister, as she felt the abuse would never stop, even when she was in a different state,” the complaint said. The sister posted the allegations on Facebook because of Smith’s status as a community member within the tribe, which led to the second victim.

When asked, the second victim told her mother that Smith “touched her breasts and vagina and that the abuse eventually developed into digital, vaginal, anal, and oral intercourse.”

The girl was 12 years old when the abuse began and 15 when it ended, according to court docs.

Smith is now required to register as a sex offender. He was committed to Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, the state’s only maximum security prison.