MARSHFIELD, Mo. --The Webster County prosecuting attorney accuses four Amish bishops of not telling law enforcement officers about the sexual abuse of girls in their community. Each bishop is charged with one misdemeanor count of failure of to report a sexual crime against a child.

Those charged on Tuesday are Christian Schwartz, 40; Jacob Schwartz, 79; Emmanuel Eicher, 44; and Peter Eicher, 59. They will be mailed summons to appear in court on Nov. 16. If convicted, they could each get a sentence in the county jail up to one year, or a fine up to $1,000.

Prosecutors say the bishops did not report sexual abuse that investigators believe Johnny Schwartz of Seymour committed on two relatives. Schwartz was charged in mid-October with six counts involving sexual abuse of children. His wife, Fannie Schwartz, is also charged with not reporting the abuse.

As bishops in the church, they are mandated by law to report abuse if they know it's happening. The prosecutor says they were aware of it.

If you spend a little time in Amish country, it won't take long to see it's a different way of life around here. There’s no electricity and little communication with the outside world, and a totally different set of rules.

Those rules include doling out their own punishment for a man accused of sexually abusing two little girls.

"They're completely embarrassed by that but they feel they have the authority through God to handle it their way," said Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole.

Their way is to keep it within the Amish community.

"He (Johnny Schwartz) was shunned, which essentially meant he couldn't have any involvement with the community for a period of time,” the sheriff said.

That period of time was 30 to 60 days. But, investigators believe, after Johnny Schwartz was shunned the first time, he sexually abused a second girl. It's the lack of reporting about that crime that is proving to be a challenge for law enforcement.

"If it happens again, do I think they'll report it? I don't know. I don't know,” said Cole.

Cole drove to the Amish community around Seymour and Diggins about three weeks ago to make clear to the Amish that they too are held to modern day laws and punishments, and ignorance of the law or claims of a Higher Authority doesn't override their obligation to report crimes.

So the question for a judge will be whether the four bishops found out about the alleged abuse in privileged conversation. The prosecutor's charges, would suggest otherwise.

"Any case where you have a third person going and saying, ‘Hey, so and so is sexually abusing a child,’ or ‘So and so is physically abusing or neglecting a child,’ at that point, the minister has a responsibility to report it,” said Prsoecuting Attorney Danette Padgett.

The state’s mandatory reporting law doesn't only apply to the bishops in the Amish community. The prosecutor and sheriff say they hope this case will be a lesson that will prompt all adults, not just Amish ones, to find out whether they are mandatory reporters under the law, and know what their responsibilities are.