Black sect leader is granted delay in sentencing

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 30, 2003

Eatonton -- A religious leader who admitted molesting 13 children was granted a two-week continuance Wednesday, one day before being sentenced.
Dwight York, leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, a mostly black sect based in Putnam County, pleaded guilty to multiple child molestation charges and signed a plea agreement that would send him to prison for 15 years.
York's attorney, Ed Garland, would not comment on the continuance, and U.S. Attorney Max Wood declined to comment.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright said if there is a problem with the federal plea agreement, a state plea will still stand unless York decides to withdraw the plea agreement.
Under York's plea agreement, he will serve 15 years in federal prison on the federal charges, with 14 years on the state charges running concurrently. The state sentence requires him to spend an additional 36 years on probation as a sex offender.

Nuwaubian leader pleads guilty on child charges

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
January 24, 2003
By Bill Osinski

Nuwaubian leader Dwight York pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to charges of transporting children across state lines for purposes of illegal sex.
Today, York is scheduled to enter another guilty plea in a related state case: He was indicted last May on 197 counts of child molestation.
According to defense and prosecution sources, York's recommended sentence in both courts will be 50 years, with a minimum of 15 years before he is eligible for parole.
Both sides declined to release details of today's plea agreement on the state charges.
York, 57, also agreed to forfeit the more than $400,000 in cash that was confiscated when more than 300 federal and local police officers raided his Putnam County farm after his arrest last May. Part of the money will be distributed to York's victims, for counseling and other related expenses.
The plea bargain effectively ends a four-year federal and local investigation into child abuse allegations, which led to what prosecutors saywas the nation's largest prosecution of a single defendant in a child molestation case.
York had been scheduled to go to trial next week in Newton County. There were 216 counts related to child molestation against York in the state indictment, and the state had named 13 victims. Though some are now adults, all are children of followers of York in his group, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, and all were children at the time they were molested.
Prosecutors said the number of counts could have reached the thousands, but the victims were unable to provide specific dates for all the times York sexually abused them.
York's guilty pleas, entered in Macon, eliminate the need for a trial, which had potential pitfalls for both sides.
From the defense viewpoint, it would have been highly difficult to cross-examine the child witnesses aggressively. Also, by going to trial, York would have risked receiving a much longer sentence, had he been found guilty.
From the prosecution viewpoint, the plea bargain means that the victims will not have the traumatic experience of testifying about the abuse. The deal assures York will spend most of the rest of his life in prison. At a trial, there would always have been the chance of a hung jury, or an acquittal.
York and approximately 100 of his followers left their base in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1993, and moved to a 400-acre farm property in Putnam County. In New York, they had been a purportedly Muslim group called Ansaru Allah Community.
But after they moved to Georgia, the group adopted a new, Egyptian-styled ideology and costumes. York re-named them the United Nuwaubian nation of Moors.
Along the entrance to their property on Ga. 142, they built pyramids, obelisks and Egyptian-styled statuary. They called the property Egypt of the West.
However, the state's case against York was that all the trappings were merely camouflage for York's practices of taking his followers' wealth and having unfettered, repeated sex with their children.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the state's search warrant served on York's farm, his followers believed that he was a supreme, god-like being.
The child victims were selected by York, separated from their parents, and brought closer to him, according to the affidavit.

York pleads innocent in Putnam case

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 26, 2002
By Bob Osinski

Eatonton -- Sect leader and accused child molester Dwight York returned shackled and handcuffed Friday to Putnam County. It was the first time since his May arrest on federal and state charges that the 57-year-old leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors had come back to the county where he had once hoped to turn his 400-acre farm into a separate nation called the Egypt of the West. He had been kept at an undisclosed location since the arrest.
The official reason for York's visit was a court appearance, where he pleaded not guilty to all 208 counts of the state's indictment, which accuses York of repeated sexual molestation of the children of some of his followers.
Approximately 200 of his followers came to the courthouse to support York, giving the proceedings the flavor of a rally.
On the courthouse green, they chanted, "God will make a way!" and "We love you!" as York, dressed in a blue business suit, was led into a police van.
Inside the courtroom, York played subtly to his audience. During a recess, he turned and smiled at his followers, who were almost all dressed in black.
When his co-defendant Kathy Johnson, whom his attorneys have referred to as his wife, passed him to enter her own plea of not guilty, he briefly clasped her hand.
Johnson is charged with participating in some of the alleged acts of molestation.
One of York's supporters, Augusta-based pastor Alexander Smith, said he and many of the others question the validity of the charges.
"We don't think he's capable of these horrendous charges," Smith said.
Friday's hearing may be one of the last times York appears in Putnam County.
Superior Court Judge William Prior Jr. agreed with defense and prosecuting attorneys that York's trial should be moved away from the county.
Prior indicated he will pick a trial site within a few weeks. Prosecutors expect the trial to start in January.

Putnam grand jury reindicts top Nuwaubian

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 4, 2002
By Bill Osinski

Eatonton --- The state has expanded what is already believed to be Georgia's --- and perhaps the nation's --- largest child molestation case by reindicting Nuwaubian leader Dwight York. The Putnam County grand jury handed down a 208-count indictment Thursday, nearly doubling the number of crimes alleged in its previous indictment of York in May. York is named in 197 of the counts.
Eight new alleged victims were identified by the state for the new indictment.
"This has been the most voluminous case, in terms of number of counts, number of victims, and the sheer scope of the investigation that I've ever been associated with," said District Attorney Fred Bright, the lead prosecutor in the case. "It becomes mind-boggling after a while."
As with the earlier charges, almost all of the counts are child molestation or aggravated child molestation, a crime in whice force or violence is alleged.
Bright said the second indictment was necessary in order to ensure that the state's case is as complete as legally possible.
"I want the trial jury to hear the whole scope of the child molestation that happened here in Putnam County," Bright said.
Defense attorneys have filed a motion for a change of venue for the trial, and Bright said he will not oppose it.
York, 57, moved with 100 or so of his followers to a 400-acre rural property in Putnam County in 1993 from Brooklyn, N.Y., where the group was a Muslim-oriented organization called Ansaru Allah Community.
Once in Georgia, the group went through several name and identity changes before York settled on the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors.
A joint federal-local investigation began after police received anonymous tips that York was molesting children in the group, culminating in his arrest in May and a raid on the Nuwaubian property by about 300 law enforcement officers.
York has also been indicted in federal court and charged with four counts of transporting children across state lines for the purposes of illegal sexual activity. He was denied bail on those charges and he remains in federal custody.

Sect leader promised salvation via sex, teen says

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 2, 2002
By Bill Osinski

Orlando -- It began, the girl said, when the man they all called "the lamb" told her that submitting to his sexual desires was her ticket to heaven.
She was 12; he was 50 or 51.
Nuwaubian leader Dwight York started summoning her to do cleaning chores in his home on the sect's farm in Putnam county, she said.
Soon after that, the encounters with York at the farm where her mother had brought her to live turned sexual, she said. It would continue for about the next 2 1/2 years -- sometimes every night -- and she obeyed, she said.
Sometimes, other adults and children were present or participating with York in the sex acts, she said.
"If you do this, you'll go to heaven, you'll be saved," she said York told her during their encounters.
"I knew it was wrong from the get-go," she said.
Now 17, the girl has broken free of the farm and York's influence.
She has told her story, first to her father and then to a Putnam County grand jury that recently indicted York, now 56, on 116 counts related to molesting underage girls and boys. Those charges were brought shortly after York's arrest May 8 on federal charges of transporting children across state lines for illegal sexual activity. The girl is named as a victim in 13 counts of the state indictment and as a witness in four others.
The girl and her father spoke with the Journal-Constitution at their home in Orlando.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who spearheaded the four-year investigation that lead to York's arrest, said he has not personally interviewed the girl or others who testified before the state grand jury. But he said he believes they are credible witnesses.
"I think the indictment speaks for itself," Sills said. "Could all these people be lying? Yes. But could a spaceship land tomorrow in the back of the jail? In the same way, yes."
The sheriff said he has "never been involved in a child molestation case where so many people have come forward."
During a recent hearing at which York was denied bond, an FBI agent testified that the government has identified 35 people allegedly molested by York as children. The victims were as young as four, the agent testified.
'The story is too crazy
The 17-year-old girl is on the honor roll in her high school and plans to go to college. She can speak dry-eyed and matter-of-factly about her experience inside the Nuwaubian group, even laughing at times at what she sees now as a bizarre but difficult experience in the cultlike group.
Ed Garland, York's defense attorney, declined to comment for this story. He has previously suggested that the witnesses against York may have been coached by either their relatives or by police.
The girl denied that she has received any form of coaching.
"No one would know how to coach me," she said. "The story is too crazy."
Regardless of what happens in court, the girl's family has been shattered and divided by their associations with York's groups.
The girl's mother and one of her older sisters remain loyal to York; the mother continues to live on the 400-acre Putnam County farm that is the base for York's group, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors.
York and 100 to 200 of his followers came to Georgia in 1993 from Brooklyn, N.Y., where they had formed a group called Ansaru Allah Community.
In New York, the group was Muslim-oriented in ideology, costume and religious practices; while in Georgia, they have adopted practice and garb from ancient Egypt and have decorated their farm with Egyptian-style pyramids, obelisks and statues.
York is referred to as the "master teacher" and "the lamb." In some of the group's literature, York claims to be a godlike being from a planet he calls Rizq.
The girl's family's entanglement with York goes back to the early 1970s in Trinidad. York went there to establish a branch of his group, which was then based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and called Ansaru Allah Community, the father said.
He said York's brand of black historical consciousness mixed with observance of Islamic religious practices appealed to him, and he became affiliated with the group, which did not practice communal living in Trinidad, as it did in Brooklyn.
The father married a woman who had become pregnant by York. They raised that child, a daughter, and had six children of their own, including the 17-year-old, he said.
In the early 1980s, his wife took the eldest daughter to Brooklyn to meet York -- her biological father, who had never supported her, he said. They decided to stay, his wife becoming one of York's wives, he said.
The father said he and his children followed the woman to the Ansaru Allah Community, but stayed only a few months. "I couldn't even talk to her," he said about his wife.
Some of the apartments in the complex of apartment houses on Bushwick Avenue were rat infested, and others had no electricity and open holes in the floors, the father said.
The men and women lived in separate buildings, with the women staying in the community and doing York's office work, while the men were sent out to the streets of New York to peddle things like incense and York's books and pamphlets, he said.
He said he worked and lived in the New York area and kept the children with him. His wife would stay with the family for periods of time, but would also return to Ansaru Allah.
The couple separated for good in the early 1990s, with the wife taking their four daughters back with her to York -- who at that time spent most of his time at his rural estate in Sullivan County, New York. The couple's two sons were grown by this time.
In 1994, the mother and the couple's two youngest daughters went to the farm in Putnam County; the older two daughters had left on their own. By this time, York had changed the name of the group to the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors; most of the Islamic practices and ideology were dropped. And he promised to lead a select group of his followers to a form of extragalactic salvation, the father said.
The girl, who is the fifth of six children, said the living conditions for her and the other children were "very bad."
Their doublewide trailer had no air-conditioning, broken windows and cracked plywood floors, she said. Their food consisted mostly of staples, such as oatmeal, rice, beans, carrots and cabbage, she said.
When she was about 12, she and some other girls her age started being called to York's house on the farm. She was told she was to help keep house for York, she said.
Some of the women in the group started to ask her sexually explicit questions, such as, "Have you ever been with a boy?" she said. They told her about some of the sexual things that York might want her to do, she said.
After York would have sex with her, he would order her not to tell anyone, especially her mother, about what he did with her, she said.
"He said if I told her, she would be punished," the girl said.
So the girl kept her meetings with York a secret. She said she knew she wanted to leave, but she also knew she'd have to be older before she could manage to find her way out.
In the meantime, she worked in York's office, sometimes preparing stories for the Nuwaubian newspaper. One night in 1999, she sneaked back into York's office and called her father in New York asking him to come to Georgia to get her.
"She said something bad had happened to her, but she wouldn't say what," the father said.
The next day, the father and two of the girl's older siblings arrived at the Nuwaubian compound. They were allowed past the security gate because the guard didn't recognize them, he said. His daughter had been watching for them and made a run for the car.
Her mother saw her leaving and called to her.
She assured her mother that she wanted to leave, and she did, taking nothing but the clothes she was wearing. A few months later, the father sent a plane ticket for the youngest daughter, and she rejoined him in New York.
He divorced his wife not long after getting his daughters back, and his ex-wife remains on the Nuwaubian compound, as far as he knows. He said he still cannot understand why his wife, an educated woman, remains loyal to York.
After his daughter rejoined him, she was moody, rebellious and reluctant to discuss any details of her life in the Nuwaubian community, he said.
A desire to tell the public
But about a year ago, he overheard her and her younger sister talking about how York had molested her. He said he was outraged and shocked, but he was able to persuade his daughter to tell the full story.
"It was like his spell over her was broken," he said.
He called the police in Florida, who told him he would have to report the crime to Georgia authorities.
Within a day or two, he took his daughter to FBI offices in Orlando to be interviewed by the agents working on the York investigation.
The father said he wants the justice system to deal fairly but harshly with York. He agreed to be interviewed and to allow his daughter to be interviewed for this story, he said, because he wants people to know how his family was damaged.
"York has no respect for humanity. Somebody had to stand up to him," the father said. "And I had to stand up for my daughter."
The father said he has contacted an attorney in Georgia for the purpose of filing civil litigation against York.
He added that although his daughter has not spoken to him about the details of her experiences with York, he is tormented by visions of her screaming, all to no avail.
"All the time my daughter was screaming, there was no one to help her," he said. "For every scream my daughter screamed, he should spend 10 years in jail."

FBI: Kids from 4 to 18 abused in sect

Atlanta Journal-Constitutuion
May 14, 2002
By Bill Osinski

Eatonton --- The child molestation case against Nuwaubian leader Dwight York escalated Monday in state and federal court.
In Eatonton, a Putnam County grand jury issued a 116-count indictment of the 56-year-old leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, a quasi-religious group whose 150 to 200 members live in a rural compound that features huge pyramids and a large gate covered with hieroglyphics.
York was charged with 74 counts of child molestation, 29 counts of aggravated child molestation and related charges, including one count of rape.
In Macon, an FBI agent testified at a bond hearing in U.S. District Court that authorities have identified as many as 35 victims, whose age at the time of the alleged crimes ranged from 4 to 18.
York is in federal custody after being arrested Wednesday by FBI agents in Baldwin County as an army of federal and local officers swooped down on the compound in Putnam County. York's associate, Kathy Johnson, who was arrested with him on the federal charges, also was named in five counts of the state indictment.
Three other members of the Nuwaubian group --- identified as Chandra Lampkin, Kadijah Merritt and Esther Cole --- were indicted on state charges of child molestation.
Fred Bright, district attorney for the judicial circuit that includes Putnam County, said the state indictment accuses York of molesting at least five children repeatedly "and in just about every way imaginable."
The indictments crown a four-year investigation by the FBI and the Putnam County sheriff's office. It began when a local social service agency received anonymous allegations that children were being sexually abused at the Nuwaubians' 400-acre ranch.
York and the Nuwaubians have frequently criticized Putnam County authorities for what they contend is racial discrimination and harassment.
Assistant District Attorney Dawn Baskin said there were no ulterior motives to the state's charges.
"There's nothing political about child molestation," she said.
All the alleged crimes were committed at the Nuwaubian compound, Bright said.
FBI agent Jalaine Ward testified at the bond hearing in federal court in Macon regarding the scope of the government's case against York.
York Said to Have Ruled with Iron Hand
The government has statements from approximately 15 witnesses who testified that York sodomized and had sexual intercourse with children, Ward testified. In some of these encounters, the acts were photographed and videotaped, she said.
The agent's testimony depicted a long-standing pattern of York's having sex with children within his community.
The incidents started at his group's bases in New York and continued after the sect moved in 1993 to a Putnam County farm and --- in the alleged acts that make this case a federal matter --- during an estimated 15 to 20 trips to Disney World in Florida over the past four years, investigators say.
"York controls everything that goes on" at the compound, Ward said, summarizing witness descriptions of life at the former cattle ranch, which the Nuwaubians have decorated with Egyptian-style pyramids and statuary. In some Nuwaubian literature, York is called the group's savior or god.
Ward said York controlled what and how much his followers ate, how much money they were permitted, and whether they could come and go at the compound.
The federal prosecutor wants to deny York bail, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Claude Hicks indicated he would not rule on that matter before today, when the bond hearing resumes.
Hicks ruled that defense attorneys could review the 50-page affidavit used to support York's arrest, but he also gave prosecutors time to black out the names of victims mentioned in the document.
Defense Lawyer Demands to See Papers
Defense attorney Ed Garland of Atlanta argued he should have access to unedited versions of the federal investigative document.
"We are here, really, in the dark," Garland told the court. "If a confidential informant is also a victim, then they are not entitled to be shielded."
Hicks rejected that argument, but Garland renewed his demand for the documents as he started to cross-examine Ward. It was then the hearing was adjourned for the day.
In her testimony, the FBI agent said children typically were separated from adults at the Nuwaubian compound. They were not allowed contact with their natural parents without York's permission, she said.
Witnesses have stated that Johnson, York's associate, was an active participant in some of the sex acts with the children, Ward said. Johnson brought children to York for sex and instructed them on sexual techniques, the agent said.
Ward also testified that some of the children were intimidated and threatened by York. One of the females who accused York said he "threatened to shoot her in the head" if she reported the sexual abuse to authorities, Ward said.
In a search of the farm conducted last week during the massive raid by authorities, federal agents confiscated more than 30 weapons, about a dozen of which were found in York's house, Ward testified.

Nuwaubian expansion rejected

Atlanta Journal-Constitution,

June 28, 2000

Rebecca McCarthy - Staff

Athens --- The Clarke County Board of Adjustments denied a zoning variance request Tuesday from the leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors to waive all buffer and setback requirements for a Broad Street building adjacent to a historic neighborhood.Malachi Z. York, aka Dwight York, who moved with his followers from Brooklyn, N.Y., five years ago to an Egyptian-style community of 400 acres in Putnam County, lists an Athens address on his petition. He wanted to add a second floor that would double the square footage of the one-story brick structure, formerly a toy and novelty story, and use it as a fraternal lodge for his group.In Brooklyn, York's Muslim-oriented group was known as Ansaru Allah Community; in Putnam County, the group changed its name, garb and ideology, and built numerous Egyptian-style statues and pyramids outside Eatonton. In cities across the country, including Athens, stores offer classes about the group and sell Nuwaubian writings, a blend of philosophies from the Bible, ancient Egyptian polytheism and end-of-the-millennium alien visitation prophecies.In Athens, York bought the Ideal Amusement building for $285,000 this spring. It sits against the property line of a historic house on Dearing Street, its roof line level with the house's back yard. On its east side is Church Street, a narrow road with a steep incline leading from Dearing to Broad.Several residents of the Dearing Street neighborhood, where homes date from the 1800s, spoke against granting the variance, saying the lodge would further add to parking, pedestrian and traffic problems. The neighborhood is one block south of Broad Street.Dearing Street homeowner Farley Richmond, head of the drama department at the University of Georgia, said his street was in "a delicate balance" and any change could cause serious upset. UGA sociology professor Mark Cooney, a neighbor, said the Board of Adjustments would be setting a bad precedent if it granted the variances.If the board allows a second floor to be built, said Dearing Street resident Walter O'Briant, the Nuwaubians will have to hire a helicopter to reach it because they won't have any rear access to the building.NAACP member Thomas Oglesby said the response of the residents was racist and that the Nuwaubians have as much right to do business as anyone else. Bernard Foster, who identified himself as a contractor on the building, tried to assuage the concerns of the residents, even as he chided them for "prejudging" the Nuwaubians. He said the lodge wouldn't have rowdy activity or disturb the people living behind it. It would, he said, simply be a place where "we could go as members of a fraternal organization and do the things we do in unity."After the unanimous decision to deny the variance, Foster said he doesn't know whether York will use the building as a lodge without expanding it or find a different location.In Putnam County, Nuwaubian followers staged a rally at the courthouse in Eatonton Tuesday afternoon, upset that the names of some followers were taken off voter registration rolls. A sheriff's spokesman said the rally seemed peaceful.