York delays decision to withdraw plea

Posted By: Isis1
Date: Tuesday, 1 July 2003, at 5:18 a.m.

York delays decision to withdraw plea
Followers rally behind Nuwaubian leader

By Joe Johnson
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com

MACON - Concerns about his mental competency have delayed religious cult leader and admitted child molester Malachi York's decision on whether or not to withdraw his guilty plea in federal court.

Arguments for the competency exam and other issues were held in the second-floor courtroom of U.S. District Court packed with members of York's United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, while hundreds of other of his followers stood vigil outside.

The hearing was originally scheduled to give York an opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea to federal child molestation charges in the aftermath of U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson's rejection of a plea bargain. The hearing was delayed for nearly an hour as York argued with his attorneys over their representation of him
Defense attorney Manubir Arora told Lawson that York claims to be chief of a Native American tribe and therefore believes the federal government lacks jurisdiction to prosecute the crimes he is accused of.

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and ankle manacles, York, a native of New York City, told the judge that he was chief of the Yamassee tribe, and therefore could not receive a fair trial unless it was held on an Indian reservation.

''All I'm asking the court is to recognize that I am an indigenous person,'' York said to Lawson. ''I can't be tried fairly if I am tried by settlers and Confederates.''

Arora said he and his client had engaged in ''heated discussions'' just prior to Monday's hearing concerning his legal representation.

''We can't have meaningful discussions about going forward with these charges,'' Arora told the judge. ''He is completely unable to assist counsel'' in his own defense. ''He feels if he cooperates, he violates his jurisdiction argument.''

addition to requesting a mental competency examination and hearing, York's attorneys said they filed a motion for a change of venue, to a location where potential jurors would be less likely to be influenced by pre-trial publicity.

Lawson said he would grant the change-of-venue request, but would first have to decide where a trial would be held. He took the request for a competency examination and hearing under advisement, but said, ''We are going to proceed in any event as if we were going to meet the Aug. 4 trial date.''

Originally named Dwight York, the defendant had led a sect in Brooklyn, N.Y., called the Ansaru Allah community, a segregationist religious group which incorporated Muslim traditions. He relocated followers to Putnam County in 1993, where his United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors established a compound on 476 acres it purchased in Eatonton. At the corner of West Broad and Church streets in Athens, the group planned on opening a lodge, but later licensed the location as a book store. York had lived for a time in Athens, in a $528,000 home off Timothy Road.

Initially accused of molesting more than a dozen minor girls, some as young as 11, York in January pleaded guilty to one count each of transporting children across state lines for sexual purposes and attempting to evade financial reporting requirements. In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend at sentencing that York be imprisoned for 15 years and serve three years of supervised release.

In an order dated June 25, Lawson rejected that plea bargain, stating that the agreed-upon sentence called for less prison time than what is provided for under sentencing guidelines the judge must follow. In the order, Lawson told York that as a result of his rejection of the agreement, York would have an opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea. If he did not withdraw it, the judge warned, York risked receiving a prison sentence more lengthy than that contemplated by the original plea agreement.
U.S. Attorney Maxwell Wood said York will have another opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea once the judge rules on the motion for a competency examination.

Prosecutors on Monday told Lawson they would be filing a superceding indictment seeking to have Nuwaubian properties in Eatonton and Athens seized.

When the hearing ended, York's followers moved from the front of the courthouse to the entrance to the sally port on the side of the building to await their leader being driven back to prison. With some beating a steady cadence on drums, others in the crowd chanted ''Maku, Maku,'' which some explained meant ''Chief, chief'' in the Yamassee language. The chant grew to a crescendo as the van containing York made its way past the crowd, with many cheering and shouting ''I love you.''

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, July 1, 2003.