John B. Russwurm

JOHN B. RUSSWURM abolitionist, editor, college graduate and government official in Liberia. 1799-1851 A.D.

John Russwurm is most known for having founded the black press in the United States. In 1827 A.D., the first issue of FREEDOM'S JOURNAL was published. Walker's Appeal was first published in this paper. The African Colonization Society was an organization originally set up by pale Americans to return-so-called "free blacks" to Africa. Although John Russwurm was opposed to this plan at first, after studying the situation of blacks in America he became a part of this society and became one of the first blacks to become a "colonial agent". Later he moved to Liberia where he became the first black to hold an office in the black American settlement in Liberia called the Maryland in Liberia Settlement.

It was his goal to make Liberia an example of what blacks could accomplish through self government.

David Walker black nationalist and original proposer of Pan Africanism in America.

David Walker black nationalist and original proposer of Pan Africanism in America.

In 1829 A.D., David Walker published "AN APPEAL TO THE COLORED CITIZENS OF THE WORLD", which urged all enslaved Africans to break the ties of slavery. The majority of the ideals of black nationalism were included in his work: universal concern for blacks internationally, development of industry and defense, revolution against their oppressors and establishment of a black nation. He stated the reason blacks were so oppressed was due to their disobedience to ALLAH MOST GLORIFIED AND EXALTED and the cruelty of the white race, and that this oppression was enforced by the slave system and white preachers "Christinizing" blacks. Walker stated: "Your full glory and happiness, as well as all other coloured people under Heaven, shall never be fully consumate, but with the entire emancipation of your enslaved brethren over the world." Thus, David Walker was the first to form Pan-Africanism. As a result of his publication, Southern Legislature passed laws to prevent the circulation of pamphlets like David Walker's "APPEAL". Many states made it a law punishable by death to introduce or circulate literature propogating the abolition of slavery. It was after this that Georgia made it illegal to teach slaves how to read or write and Virginia banned black ministers from preaching because some had read the "APPEAL" to their congregations. David Walker mysteriously died in 1930 A.D. after a reward of $1,000 for his death and $10,000 for him alive was offered.

MARTIN DELANY

Marcus Garvey (HWON) believed when all other things failed, conditions would bring a people together. The millions of Nubians whom the Universal Negro Improvement Association was said to represent internationally is definitely proof of this statement.

THE FORERUNNERS OF MARCUS GARVEY (HWON)

The stage that Marcus Garvey (HWON) was to enter in America was being set before he was born. During the early 19th century, blacks who thought they were "free" were advocating the abolishment of slavery and their own version of "back to Africa" movements. The most prominent of these men is:

MARTIN DELANY doctor, journalist and black nationalist.

Martin Delany founded the first black newspaper outside the eastern sea board called THE MYSTERY in 1847 A.D. After its fold a year later he became co-editor with Frederick Douglas of THE STAR newspaper in New York. He is best known for writing the book THE CONDITION, ELEVATION, EMIGRATION AND DESTINY OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, POLITICALLY CONSIDERED, which was the first full-length publication on black nationalism. It covered the achievements of black men and women and the inconsistensy of abolitionist to fight for the slaves integration into American society.

He advocated that blacks emigrate as a solution to discrimination. Delaney stated, "We are a nation within a nation... We must go from our oppressors." His solution was emigration to Central or South America or as another alternative, to Africa. In 1859 A.D., Martin Delaney went to Africa to travel for nine months in the Niger Valley and Liberia. In Abbeokuta (in present day Nigeria) the king signed a treaty allowing Nubians in America the right to establish a self-governing colony there.

Who was Marcus Garvey?

INTRODUCTION

In 1916 A.D., Marcus Garvey (HWON) stormed into the United States of America full of plans and ideas for Nubians (1)(Blacks) world wide. The people of his native country, Jamaica, West Indies were not yet ready for the mission he was to unfold. They were too caught up in discriminating amongst themselves in emulation of the British cast system. So he looked to America as the base of the first international movement to attempt to unify Nubian (black) people regardless to what nationallity they called their own.

Through his travels he saw that Nubians (blacks) in Europe, Panama, Costa Rica, the West Indies and the United States were all treated the same -- exploited and discriminated against. He realized the palce race (CT) did not regard the lives of blacks as equal to whites and they would never respect blacks or "negros" until they had their own. Marcus Garvey (HWON) stated that, "A race without authority and power is a race without respect."

During this time, the blackman had no sound means of supporting himself and had to rely totally on the whim of the pale man (CH) for their daily maintenance: he had not industry to create jobs, no ship for trade, no government to protect him, and his leaders taught him to continue to depend on the palce race (CT). To combat this, Marcus Garvey (HWON) created the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) with the goals of uniting all Nubians across the globe by creating a central nation for the entire race, assisting those who were needy, promoting a spirit of pride and love amongst themselves and establishing schools and universities to educate and provide the basic skills which were so desperately needed.

Marcus Garvey (HWON) taught Nubians to strive for their own in order to become economically stable and to develop a complete nation outside of the place man's (CH) where they would live of, for and by each other. The same goals the Nubian Islamic Hebrew Mission is accomplishing in this day and time.

Against opposition from all sides (both black and white) Marcus Garvey (HWON) worked endlessly towards this goal by way of his UNITED NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION for 26 years, untill he passed on in 1940 A.D. His slogan was "Africa for Africans". He was determined to return a place in Africa to all Nubian people in the form of great Pan-African empire, which would governed in unity.

1. We are known as Nubian, as we are the descendants of the Prophet Noah (PUBH) who was the father of Nuba, which is now called Nubia and located in North Africa.

Paul is an advocate of the Five P's.

It doesn't stop there. And Saul, Shaool, Paul's name starts with the letter "P" and Saul, Shaool, Paul is an advocate of the Five P's. The five principles or the Five P's that the five pointed star represents are:

1. Polytheism: the belief and worship of many gods
2. Politics: the science of winning and holding control of the government.
3. Psychology: the study of the mind and behavior of humans
4. Philosophy: an explanation or theory of the universe based entirely on conversation and not necessarily facts.
5. Penal: this relates to the law and punishment. This system was established by Nimrod and laid down by Hammurabi.

The First "P" is Polytheism, which according to the American Heritage Dictionary, means: "the worship of or belief in more than one god." And Saul, Shaool, Paul said in Galatians 1:6, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:" Notice that in the verse above, Saul, Shaool, Paul is speaking about Another Gospel and not "The" Gospel, thus he practices Polytheism. Saul, Shaool, Paul is also Roman and Romans worship many gods such as, Zeus, Rhea, Hercules, Jupiter, Juno, etc.

The Second "P" is Politics, and according to "The American Heritage Dictionary means: "Intrigue or maneuvering within a political unit or a group in order to gain control or power." And Saul, Shaool, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22,

"And unto the Jews I become as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law, 21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. 22 to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

Now Saul, Shaool, Paul just stated above that he becomes whomever he's trying to convert. Now doesn't that sound like a Politician?

The Third "P" is Psychology, and according to The American Heritage Dictionary it means: "The science that deals with mental processes and behavior." And in Romans 7:23-25 Saul, Shaool, Paul says, "But I (Paul) see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I (Paul) thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I (Paul) myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

Notice how Saul, Shaool, Paul is trying to use Psychology with his members convincing them they are under the law of sin.

The Fourth "P" is Philosophy, and according to The American Heritage Dictionary it means: "A system of motivating concepts or

page 39 of Is It Black Man's Christianity or White Man's Christianity by Dr. Malachi Z. York.

Who was this person Saul, Shaool, Paul?

Ans: Saul, shaool, Paul was an FBI agent who infiltrated Yashu'a, Isa, Jesus' followers just like they do today. They infiltrate the organization and if they can't topple the leader physically, then they get into organization, pretend to be members and destroy it from the inside like they did many groups and leaders of this day and time. Some examples are Marcus Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Clarence 13X, Elijah Muhammad, Yahweh ben Yahweh, ect. (refer to Are there Black Devils Scroll #358 by Dr. Malachi Z. York 33/720 degrees). You know the tactic: people join the organization and pretend to be devotees, work their way up under the leader, get the confidence of his people and then pervert the doctrine, change things around, cause confusion, diversion, and conflicts amongst the followers until the orginal teachings become all but lost in lies. This is Saul, Shaool, Paul's tactic, to fool the elect just as Yashu'a, Isa, Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

You have been fooled. Saul, Shaool, Paul even has Negroids thinking that they are Gentiles. The letter P comes from B in Semetic language as in Saul became Paul. P is the change.

page 37 of "Is it Black Man's Christianity or White Man's Christianity? by Dr. Malachi Z. York

Judge recuses himself from York's trial

Macon Telegraph
July 22, 2003
By Rob Peecher

The judge hearing the case of cult leader and confessed child molester Malachi York has stepped aside at the request of York's lawyers.
In an order filed late last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson recused himself from the case.
Lawson rejected a plea agreement reached between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the defense, and his decision opens the door again for York's guilty plea to go through.
In January, York pleaded guilty in both federal and state courts to numerous charges involving child molestation. In June, Lawson rejected York's deal with federal prosecutors, after telling lawyers in the case that he thought the proposed 15-year sentence was too lenient.
Early this month, York's lawyers asked Lawson to remove himself from the case, arguing that he had interfered in the plea-bargain process by stating what he thought would be an appropriate sentence.
Both guilty pleas still stand, though York has the opportunity to withdraw the plea because Lawson rejected the plea agreement.
Manny Arora, one of York's defense attorneys, said Monday that the defense will ask the new judge to accept that plea.
"We're not sure who the new judge is or anything about him," Arora said. "We will also ask this judge to accept the plea as it was negotiated, but the U.S. Attorney may have a different point of view, and the new judge, obviously, has to make his own decision as to whether he will accept this plea or not."
U.S. Attorney Max Wood declined to comment on whether the government would oppose the guilty plea. However, there have been two hearings since Lawson first rejected the plea agreement, and York has not withdrawn his guilty plea at either.
According to the plea agreement, York would have spent 15 years in a federal prison. A 15-year negotiated state sentence was to run concurrent with the federal sentence. In his order recusing himself, Lawson said he rejected the plea agreement in May because he thought York should serve at least 20 years in prison.
May 28, Lawson "met with counsel for the government and counsel for the defendant for the purpose of advising them that the court had decided to reject the plea agreement previously negotiated by the government and the defendant," Lawson wrote in his order. "The court explained that after consideration ... the court had come to the conclusion that the 15-year sentence to be imposed under the plea agreement was too lenient."
According to the order, Lawson then "indicated that a sentence of 20 years might be acceptable."
July 10, York's lawyers Ed Garland and Arora argued that Lawson had improperly participated in the negotiations and asked that the judge remove himself from the case. Last Friday, Lawson signed the order doing just that.
The U.S. district clerk of court's office will be responsible for appointing a new judge to the case, but Wood said he didn't know how long that would take.
"The ruling doesn't change anything we're doing," Wood said. "We're preparing for trial. We have many excellent judges in our district, and we'll be ready for trial whoever the judge is, wherever the trial is and whenever the trial is."
May 8, 2002, federal agents arrested York in the parking lot of a Milledgeville grocery store. Simultaneously, FBI SWAT teams and local sheriff's deputies raided the 476-acre farm in Putnam County where York and his followers, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, were based. Federal agents also raided York's home in Athens.
The arrest was the culmination of months of investigation by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office and the FBI into allegations by the children of members of his group that York had molested them.
Just before the trial on a 208-count state indictment was to begin in early February, York pleaded guilty to two federal counts of transporting children across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them and for attempting to evade financial reporting requirements. He also pleaded guilty to 77 state charges mostly consisting of child molestation and aggravated child molestation.
Since Lawson rejected York's plea agreement, two hearings have been held at the federal courthouse in Macon. Both hearings were notable for the number of York's supporters who attended. More than 250 Nuwaubians attended the first hearing in late June, and about 150 attended the hearing earlier this month.
During the June hearing, York asserted that he is an American Indian, "a sovereign" not subject to federal law. He argued with his attorneys and told a judge that according to United Nations treaties he should be turned over to his "tribe" for trial.
York and his followers moved to Putnam County from New York in 1993. Beginning in 1998, York and the Nuwaubians have been involved in a court battle with Putnam County officials over zoning violations.
The Nuwaubian compound, at 404 Shady Dale Road, features two pyramids, a sphinx and other Egyptian-style statues and building facades.

Alleged victim seeks $1 billion from Nuwaubian leader

Associated Press Athens Banner-Herald
July 18, 2003
By Daniel E. Martin

Attorneys have filed a civil lawsuit against the quasi-religious sect leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors on behalf on one of his alleged underage victims who claims he sexually molested her.
The suit, filed last year in the U.S. District Court in Athens, seeks $1 billion from confessed child molester Malachi York.
I dont know if I have the words to describe the revulsion I feel at the conduct of Mr. York toward our client, attorney Irwin W. Stolz Jr. told the Athens Banner-Herald in its Thursday editions.
The suit alleges that a female member of the Nuwaubian sect recruited the victim to be apart of the groups inner circle. York then showed the victims a pornographic video and later had sex with her. The alleged actions took place from the time the girl was 11 years old until she was 17.
Stolz said a judge could triple the award damages if a jury rules in favor of his client because he said Yorks actions fall under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
York, 58, pleaded guilty in January to taking children across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them and to evading federal financial reporting requirements.
His attorney, Manny Arora, declined to comment on the civil suit pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

Attorney: York competent to stand trial

York's attorneys file motion asking judge to rescind order
Macon Telegraph
July 17, 2003
By Rob Peecher

Two days after a federal judge ordered confessed child molester Malachi York to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, his attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to rescind that order.
The motion filed Wednesday seeks to assure the judge that York, the leader of the cult-like group the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, is competent to stand trial, willing to cooperate with his attorneys and does not want the psychiatric evaluation. Frank Rubino, the newest member of York's defense team, filed the motion.
"This attorney spent approximately two hours with Mr. York, and at all times Mr. York was coherent, logical, helpful and eager to aid in the preparation of his case," Rubino wrote in the motion. "It was clear that Mr. York could appreciate the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him."
U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson ordered Monday that York be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons to be evaluated to determine his competency to stand trial. The order was based on a motion filed by York's lawyers Ed Garland and Manny Arora and on the results of a brief psychiatric evaluation conducted earlier this month.
York pleaded guilty in January to state and federal charges of child molestation.
According to an agreement between prosecutors and York's attorneys, York was to serve 15 years in prison. But Lawson rejected the plea agreement and said he would sentence York to at least 20 years.
In June, York told Lawson during a hearing that he is an American Indian and sovereign, and therefore not subject to federal law. He also argued audibly with his attorneys. It was during that hearing that Garland and Arora asked for the competency evaluation. Rubino was not yet representing York at that time.
Rubino said Wednesday that York is now cooperating, and the defense no longer thinks there is a need for a psychiatric evaluation.
"The client has now come around. He's being helpful, he appears lucid, he appears fine," Rubino said. "He was not cooperating. He was basically stonewalling (his attorneys), but now he's come around, and it has become a moot issue as far as we're concerned."
Rubino said his involvement in the case might have been what made York decide to start cooperating with his attorneys because "sometimes it takes a fresh face to stimulate the client and get things back on track."
As of Wednesday, no hearing had been scheduled on the new motion, though Lawson could rule on it without a hearing, Rubino said.
York has yet to decide whether to withdraw his guilty plea to federal charges of transporting minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them and attempting to evade federal financial reporting requirements. He also has not withdrawn a guilty plea to 77 state counts of child molestation.

Judge order York competency test

Macon Telegraph
July 15, 2003
By Rob Peecher

A judge issued an order Monday requiring confessed child molester Malachi York to undergo a psychological evaluation at a federal facility, U.S. Attorney Max Wood confirmed.
The evaluation likely will delay the start of York's trial, tentatively set for early next month, said Wood.
"I can't imagine us being ready for trial - getting (the psychological examination) completed by Aug. 4," he said.
U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson's order had not been filed Monday in the U.S. District Courthouse in Macon. Wood said he was aware of the order but had not seen it.
York's attorney, Manny Arora, also had not seen the order late Monday afternoon. He said the defense had asked for an evaluation to determine York's competency to understand the process of his federal criminal case.
"This is not an insanity issue - this is simply to make sure he understands the proceedings," Arora said. "The trial cannot go forward until he is deemed to be competent."
York pleaded guilty in January to 77 state counts dealing almost entirely with child sex abuse charges and two federal counts involving taking children across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them and avoiding federal financial reporting requirements.
York has not withdrawn his guilty pleas in either the state or federal charges, but Lawson rejected the 15-year prison sentence agreed to during plea negotiations between the U.S. Attorney's Office and York's lawyers.
Lawson said if York follows through with the guilty plea, he likely will be sentenced to serve 20 years in prison, rather than 15.
Lawson also told both sides to be ready for trial Aug. 4 in the event that York withdraws his plea.
York's attorneys have reported to the judge that he has been uncooperative with them, and during a hearing in June, York told the judge he was a sovereign American Indians, not subject to the federal laws. York demanded that he be turned over to his "tribe" for trial.
"I think he's hanging his hat on something that, unfortunately - as the judge asked us - doesn't have any legal basis," Arora said.
Arora noted that federal law does provide special considerations for American Indians in some civil law, but American Indians are still subject to criminal law. Also, York appears to be relying on a forged document purporting to be signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue as proof that he is an American Indian.
Arora said York was initially uncooperative when a court-appointed psychologist attempted to interview him July 4, but did cooperate during a second interview July 7. He said he has not received the results of that interview.
Wood declined to comment on York's competency.
York, the leader of the cult-like group, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, moved from New York to a 476-acre farm in Putnam County in 1993. Just prior to that move, York and his followers were living on a camp in the Catskill Mountains where they had erected at least one tepee and were claiming American Indian heritage.
York, at the time, referred to himself as Chief Black Eagle, and followers still loyal to him recently have reverted back to that name. During two recent hearings in Macon, Nuwaubians have attended wearing American Indian-style clothing and beaded headdresses with feathers.
Since coming to Putnam County, though, the group has claimed ancestry from ancient Egyptians. The group also has claimed to be Muslim, Jewish and Christian. York claimed to be from another planet and has told his followers he is an angel. The group also has claimed to be affiliated with Freemasons.
In 1998, Putnam County and the Nuwaubians began a public court battle, mostly over zoning violations, that lasted until just before York's arrest by federal and local authorities in May 2002.
Late Monday, York was still being held in the Jones County Jail. It was unclear what federal facility he will be sent to. Arora guessed the evaluation will last 30 to 45 days.

York lawyer asks for new judge

The Macon Telegraph
July 11, 2003
By Sharon E. Crawford

A Nuwaubian supporter drums outside the Federal Courthouse in Macon during Nuwaubian leader Malachi York's hearing Thursday.
A defense attorney for religious leader and admitted child molester Malachi York asked a federal judge Thursday to recuse himself from the case, arguing that the judge inadvertently involved himself in plea negotiations.
"This has created an impact and prejudice on the defendant to make decisions" about his case, defense lawyer Ed Garland said. "We say that there has been a participation in the process by the court ... and an appearance of bias can be inferred."
Garland's motion was the latest twist in the case. Last week, York told Lawson he was a sovereign Indian chief and therefore not subject to federal law.
As of Thursday, York had not revoked his guilty plea and federal prosecutors were preparing for an Aug. 4 trial. York did not speak to the court Thursday and made only a few comments to his three attorneys.
York pleaded guilty in January to taking children across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them and to evading federal financial reporting requirements. He agreed to a 15-year federal sentence in the case.
In May, Federal Judge Hugh Lawson met with attorneys in the case to tell them he was planning to deny their plea agreement because it didn't call for enough prison time for York.
At that time, Garland, an Atlanta attorney and one of York's defenders, asked Lawson what the judge felt was a proper sentence in the case. Garland said in court Thursday that Lawson said 20 years was more appropriate.
"I know the court did not want to put itself in the plea bargaining process," Garland said. "(Both the defense and the prosecution) played a role into bringing the situation to where it is ... the situation the defendant finds himself in ... is that he has been advised as to what sentence the court feels is appropriate."
U.S. Attorney Richard Moultrie said federal officials do not believe Lawson acted inappropriately when responding to Garland's question about sentencing for York. He said Lawson's comment was made long after York entered a guilty plea.
Garland said York could not consider revoking his guilty plea until Lawson rules on the motion to recuse.
Garland also said he felt Lawson made his decision on sentencing after reading an erroneous presentencing report. Lawson told Garland it was common procedure to read the reports, which are written in all federal cases, before accepting or rejecting a guilty plea.
"One of the curious things about your arguments is the perverted idea that the court is not allowed to base any opinion on the presentencing report, which is an arm of the court," Lawson said.
Thursday, Lawson did not rule on the motion to recuse or another motion to suppress evidence seized by federal and local officials when they searched two of York's residences in Putnam County and in Athens.
U.S. Attorney Max Wood said he expects Lawson to rule on both motions before Aug. 4.
"We are ready to go to trial and will abide by the rulings of the court," Wood said.
In the second motion, the defense asked the court to throw out certain items - everything from pornographic videos to an animal-printed pillow - confiscated in the Nuwaubian complex in Putnam County in May 2002.
Federal prosecutors asked Lawson not to rule on that motion until York revoked his guilty plea. Lawson declined to rule on the motion Thursday, but didn't say when he would make a ruling.
During the hearing, Lawson read an order making public a May 28 meeting in his chamber among all of the lawyers in the case. At the time of the meeting, both the prosecution and the defense said they didn't want the meeting to be part of the court record.
In the meeting, Lawson said both sides asked the court to accept the plea agreement and said a 15-year prison sentence was appropriate. When Lawson refused to accept the agreement, he said, Moultrie offered to drop all but one charge against York in an effort to get a 15-year sentence.
"(The prosecution) said they were concerned that if the plea was rejected, $400,000 in forfeited items would be lost," Lawson said. "They also expressed concerns about the emotional trauma and stress a trial would put on the victims in this case who have wanted to put their relationships with the defendant behind them."
Thursday, more than 100 of York's supporters stood outside the U.S. federal court house while the court proceedings were ongoing. Only 30 people, several of them women dressed in Native American-type clothing and hairstyles, were allowed to sit in the courtroom during York's hearing.
Several women smiled when York, who was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and shackled at the hands and feet, walked in the courtroom. After the proceedings, the same women blew kisses at the defendant as he was escorted out of the room by six federal agents.
Outside, federal and state law enforcement officers walked alongside other York supporters as they played the drums and chanted songs.
Also Thursday, Garland introduced south Florida attorney Frank Rubino as the newest member of York's defense team. Rubino, who did not speak in Thursday's hearing, was the lead defense attorney for former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega.
York, who has been the leader of a cult group since the 1970s, and a group of his supporters moved to a 476-acre farm in Putnam County in 1993 from New York.
At various times, members of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors have claimed to be Egyptians, space aliens and Native Americans and connected to various religious groups, including Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Sect leader's hearing on plea delayed again

A crowd of Nuwaubian leader Dwight York's supporters gather Thursday outside the Federal Courthouse in Macon.
Athens Banner-Herald
July 11, 2003
By Joe Johnson

Macon -- Accusations, descriptions of ''sex props'' and a demand the judge remove himself from the case colored Thursday's federal court hearing for religious sect leader and admitted child molester Dwight ''Malachi'' York.
Already delayed once by concerns regarding York's mental competency, a hearing in which the former Athens resident will have an opportunity to withdraw a guilty plea has been delayed again by York's motion that the judge remove himself from the case because of alleged bias.
Defense attorney Ed Garland told U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson he had tainted his appearance of impartiality in the case when he told both sides what prison sentence he would find acceptable should the defense and prosecution agree on a new plea bargain to replace the one Lawson rejected June 25.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Moultrie accused York of employing delay tactics in the case that has dragged on since York's arrest on child molestation charges on May 8, 2002.
''The government is concerned by Mr. York making an attempt to impede this trial,'' Moultrie told Lawson.
Originally from New York City, York led a quasi-religious group called the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, which established a compound in Putnam County where York admittedly molested dozens of children. He had owned a house off Timothy Road in Athens, and his group purchased a storefront in the downtown area.
Because of York's motion for Lawson to recuse himself, a portion of Thursday's 90-minute hearing was spent creating a record of what had been said during an informal meeting in Lawson's chambers on May 28. During that meeting, Lawson indicated to prosecuting and defense attorneys that he would not accept the plea bargain the two sides had struck because the agreed-upon prison sentence of 15 years was ''too lenient.'' After excusing themselves briefly from the judge's chambers, the attorneys then asked Lawson what sentence he would consider fair, to which he replied, 20 years.
Garland told Lawson once he offered that possible prison sentence, he lost his impartiality.
A Nuwaubian supporter drums outside the Federal Courthouse in Macon during Nuwaubian leader Malachi York's hearing Thursday.
''When a judge becomes a participant in the plea bargaining process, he brings the full majesty and power of his office,'' Garland said. ''Your majesty and power has created an impact, and there's a prejudice against the defendant.''
Lawson adjourned the hearing without ruling on the motion to recuse himself or any other matters brought before him on Thursday.
Still pending is a motion for a competency examination and hearing requested by York's attorneys on June 30, when they told Lawson their client was unwilling and unable to assist in his defense because he claimed to be a Native American tribal chief who did not recognize the jurisdiction of the federal court.
The mental competency motion put on hold an opportunity Lawson gave York to withdraw his guilty plea in light of the rejection of the plea bargain. The judge had warned York that if he did not withdraw the guilty plea, he could face a stiffer sentence than what the plea bargain had envisioned.
York had initially been accused by federal authorities of molesting more than a dozen minor girls, some as young as 11, but in the rejected January plea bargain he had pleaded guilty to only one count of transporting children across state lines for sexual purposes. In state court, York had pleaded guilty to 40 counts of aggravated child molestation, 34 counts of child molestation, one count of child exploitation and two counts of influencing witnesses. Sentencing on those charges is on hold until the federal case is disposed of, as his state sentence is to run concurrent with any federal sentence that is imposed.
The other matters brought before Lawson on Thursday included a motion by the defense to suppress certain evidence obtained by the FBI in May 2002 when they searched York's $528,000 house in Athens and an estate in Eatonton inhabited by followers of York's United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors.
Defense attorney Manubir Arora told the judge that information used by an FBI agent to obtain search warrants of York's properties in Athens and Eatonton had been ''stale,'' since it came from confidential witnesses who had left York's sect nearly a year and a half before the warrants were obtained.
Reading from the warrants, Arora provided a glimpse into activities that led to York's arrest. The warrants referred to ''sex props,'' including grass skirts purchased during a trip York made with children to Disneyland, and an animal print bean bag on which children posed for pornographic photographs.
Also pending before Lawson is a June 30 motion for a change of venue, to a location where potential jurors would be less likely to be influenced by pre-trial publicity. Lawson has said he would grant the change of venue request, but would first have to decide where a trial would be held.
Lawson adjourned Thursday's hearing without ruling on any of the motions or setting a new hearing date.
York's trial is set to begin Aug. 4.
Originally named Dwight York, the 58-year-old defendant had led a sect in Brooklyn, N.Y., called the Ansaru Allah community, a segregationist religious group which incorporated Muslim traditions. Also claiming to be an extraterrestrial, York relocated followers to Putnam County in 1993, where his United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors established their Eatonton compound. 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.

Ex-Sect Leader Rejects Plea, Charges

Associated Press
July 1, 2003

The former leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors told a federal judge Monday that he was under duress when he entered a guilty plea to child molestation charges in January.
Malachi York, who identified himself as "Chief Black Eagle," asked U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson to turn him over to what he called the Yamassee Native American Government, saying the U.S. government had no jurisdiction over him.
Last week, Lawson rejected a plea agreement involving York, 58, who was the leader of the predominantly black, quasi-religious Nuwaubian group based on a 400-acre farm in Putnam County.
On Jan. 23, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of transporting children across state lines for the purpose of illegal sex and to one count of illegally structuring cash transactions. The next day, he pleaded guilty in state court in Putnam County to 77 counts related to child molestation.
As part of the plea bargain, state and federal prosecutors agreed to recommend that York be given a prison sentence that would make him eligible for parole in about 12 years.
Lawson's rejection of the plea means a trial could be necessary.
The two-hour hearing Monday was held to give York a chance to withdraw his guilty plea. The courtroom was full of York's supporters, with almost 300 outside. Many of them wore what appeared to be American Indian-style clothing with beaded headbands and feathers.
Lawson said he would make decisions in the near future on motions by York's lawyers for a change of venue motion and to have a psychological evaluation of the defendant.
"I was under duress," York said of his guilty plea. "I was in a two-man cell -- with rats. After being tortured and being told that I would get 1,000 years, they made it look like a racial issue. I was on the cross.
"I would like to be transferred to members of my tribe," York said.
"All I am asking is that the court recognize that I am an indigenous person," he said. "I am a Moorish Cherokee, and I cannot get a fair trial if I am being tried by settlers or Confederates."

York claims immunity as Indian

Defense raises new issues as about 200 show support

Macon Telegraph

July 1, 2003

By Rob Peecher

Cult leader and confessed child molester Malachi York told a federal court judge Monday that he is a sovereign Indian chief and therefore not subject to federal law.
At a hearing to determine whether York would continue to plead guilty to charges involving child molestation and financial reporting fraud, York failed to answer if he plans to withdraw his guilty plea. But he did demand that the court turn him over to his followers who, he said, would try him.
York asserted that he is "Chief Black Eagle" of the "Yamassee" tribe, which he claimed is recognized by the United Nations. About 200 of York's followers - many wearing what appeared to be American Indian-style clothing and beaded headbands with feathers - gathered in and around the U.S. District Courthouse in Macon during the hearing.
"All I'm asking is that the court recognize that I am an indigenous person," York told Judge Hugh Lawson. "I am a Moorish Cherokee and I cannot get a fair trial if I am being tried by settlers or confederates."
The hearing Monday also gave the defense the opportunity to raise two new issues. York's attorneys asked the judge to grant a psychological evaluation to determine if York is competent; and, presuming York does withdraw his guilty plea, they asked that the trial be moved.
Lawson, who last week rejected York's plea on the grounds that the recommended sentence did not fit the crimes, did not rule on either issue Monday.
The U.S. Attorney's office also announced it plans to re-indict York to add a "forfeiture charge" which might allow the government to seize the 476-acre Putnam County compound that York claims is a "sovereign nation."
York said according to supposed treaties between the government of the United States and his tribe, it is his "inalienable right to be tried by my own people."
York presented documents purportedly signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue as proof that his tribe is recognized by the government. A spokeswoman for the governor, Kimberly King, said last week the document bearing Perdue's signature was "fake."
York is the leader of a cult group known as the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. The group began in the early 1970s in Brooklyn. Over the years, the group has claimed heritage from or religious links to American Indians, Egyptians, Christians, Jews, Muslims, the Shriners and Freemasons. At one point, the Nuwaubians dressed like cowboys and York claimed to be from outer space.
York has told his followers he is an angel, and he has claimed to be a god.
Though he pleaded guilty in January to state charges of molesting 13 children from his group, many of his followers remain loyal to him. There were approximately 50 Nuwaubians inside the courtroom - some who refused to stand as the judge entered or left the courtroom. Outside, there were dozens of Nuwaubians playing drums and waiting. At one point during the hearing, they could be heard inside the courtroom chanting.
Judge Lawson explained at least twice to York that he was rejecting the plea agreement reached in January by York's attorneys and the U.S. Attorney's Office. Under that plea agreement, York would have spent 15 years in prison.
Lawson said he was rejecting the plea agreement for a number of reasons, among them that York's "post-plea behavior" has not indicated that York has accepted his guilt or considered "the impact of the conduct of the defendant on the victims." Lawson also said the 15-year sentence "does not address the severity of the admitted and alleged conduct of the defendant."
After explaining that York likely would receive a stiffer sentence if he continues with his plea of guilty or if he is convicted by a jury, Lawson asked York if he intended to withdraw his plea.
"In all due respect to your court," York responded, "I'm a sovereign. I'm a Native American."
Ed Garland, the attorney representing York, pleaded with Lawson to reconsider his rejection of the 15-year sentence. Garland also asked the judge to indulge him while he read information apparently about York's sovereignty. Lawson asked if it was something Garland was asserting in York's defense.
"It's not a position that I am making a legal argument about, but I have a client who wants to put on the record his position on certain matters," Garland said.
Lawson also asked York's other attorney, Manny Arora, if he believed there was any validity to the assertions York was making, and Lawson threatened Arora with "serious trouble" if he didn't give a direct answer.
"I don't believe, at this point, there is any legal merit," Arora answered.
York said he was "tortured" and "under duress" when he pleaded guilty, and that he had been told by his attorneys he would go to prison for "thousands of years."
When York pleaded guilty in January, Lawson was required to ask York a series of questions to ensure he was voluntarily entering his plea. York said he was voluntarily pleading.
Arora said York has become unwilling to cooperate with his attorneys.
Lawson said he was "unsettled" as to whether or not he would grant the psychological evaluation and would rule on it later, but the U.S. Attorney's office did not object to changing venue.
Lawson told Garland and Arora to be prepared for trial Aug. 4.
York and his followers moved from New York in 1993 to the farm in Putnam County. Since 1998, the group has been at odds with county officials over zoning and building codes, resulting in several lawsuits.
In May 2002, federal authorities and the local sheriff's office raided the group's compound, took five children into protective custody and arrested York at a Milledgeville grocery store. York was charged with numerous state counts of molesting children and charged federally with transporting children across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills has been at the forefront of the county's zoning battles with the Nuwaubians and was a key participant in the criminal investigation into the child molestation allegations.
Sills said Monday's hearing was "Mr. York being allowed to make a complete mockery of the criminal justice system, and what you saw today was the first round in a three-ring circus in full Indian headdress."
"Less than a year ago (York) was a Jewish Rabbi," Sills said, "and today they were all dressed like Indians again."

Judge Rejects Plea Deal for Nuwaubian Sect Leader

WSBTV.com
June 27, 2003

Macon -- Defense attorneys for the former leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors say a federal judge's rejection of a plea bargain in a child molestation case against him raises new legal issues.
Everybody knows he's pleaded guilty, said attorney Manny Arora, who represents Malachi York, after U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson's ruling was made public Thursday. "So it's going to be hard for him to get a fair trial."
Lawson set a hearing on the case for Monday in Macon. Arora said York will be asked to announce his decision on whether to withdraw his guilty plea.
York, 58, was the leader of the quasi-religious group based on a 400-acre farm in Putnam County. The group began as an Islamic sect in the early 1970s in Brooklyn, N.Y. When York and his followers moved to Putnam County 10 years ago, the group claimed York was an extraterrestrial.
On Jan. 23, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of transporting children across state lines for the purpose of illegal sex and to one count of illegally structuring cash transactions.
The next day, he pleaded guilty in state court in Putnam County to 77 counts related to child molestation.
As part of the plea bargain, state and federal prosecutors agreed to recommend that York be given a prison sentence that would make him eligible for parole in approximately 12 years.
Arora said York's deal with state prosecutors remains in place, as far as he is concerned. If York decides to go to trial, that would cause problems for both sides, in part because it would be difficult to assemble witnesses.

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.

Work on Nuwaubian building continues

Unsure if project will ever be complete
Athens Banner-Herald
May 21, 2003
By Janis Reid

The Nuwaubians are a quasi-religious sect that combines elements of black empowerment, biblical themes and Egyptian polytheism, as reflected in the Egyptian carvings emerging on the facade of the building at 815 W. Broad St.
The Broad Street property was deeded in March 2000 to Nuwaubian founder Malachi Z. York - who brought a group of followers from New York in 1993 to create a compound near Eatonton in east Georgia's Putnam County. Plans for the bookstore were received by the Athens-Clarke County Building Permits and Inspections Department in August 2001.
In January, York, also known as Dwight York, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after admitting in a negotiated plea agreement that he molested numerous children at the Putnam County compound and at his Athens mansion on Mansfield Court.
Last week, the contractors listed on the building permit for the Broad Street structure - Eatonton-based Nuwaubian General Contracting - asked the building permits department for permission to relocate an office in the building.
According to the site plan, half of the building is slotted for a customer section including bookshelves and tables, with the other side housing the office and a large open space for book storage.
Calls made to Nuwaubian General Contracting were not returned Wednesday.
Phillip Seagraves, assistant director of the building permits department, said it is unusual to have a building under construction for two years unless there is something holding up the project.
Seagraves added the building permit will remain current as long as the project does not go six months without progress.
Thomas Chism, owner of the All Eyes on Egypt bookstore and gift shop on Atlanta Highway, is listed as a contact person on the site plans filed with the building permits department.
But on Wednesday, Chism said he did not know anything about the progress of construction at the Broad Street location.
He did say, though, that once it is completed, he will be moving his bookstore into the building.

York's wife pleads guilty

Athens Banner-Herald
April 1, 2003
By Stephen Gurr

The wife of convicted child molester and cult leader Dwight ''Malachi'' York pleaded guilty to a felony charge Tuesday in federal court.
Kathy Johnson, 34, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Macon to misprision of a felony.
Misprision of a felony means ''she knew a felony was taking place and she didn't do anything about it,'' said U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Pam Lightsey.
Johnson, along with York, had originally been charged with crossing state lines for the purposes of sex with a minor. As part of the plea agreement, that charge was dropped in exchange for Johnson's admission that she knew the offense was taking place.
Authorities said York and Johnson took children from the group's Putnam County compound to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., where they engaged in sex acts with the minors.
Johnson faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison when she is sentenced by Judge Hugh Lawson in about two months. She remains free on a $75,000 bail.
Johnson still faces state charges involving the molestation of a number of young victims after being indicted last year in Putnam County Superior Court. That case has not yet gone to trial.
York, a self-styled messiah of the quasi-religious United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, admitted in November to molesting at least 13 young boys and girls at his group's Eatonton compound. In exchange for the guilty plea, York was given a state-recommended sentence of 14 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence.

York getting a lot of jail mail

The Macon Telegraph
March 2, 2003
By Rob Peecher

Gray -- Cult leader Malachi York remains popular among at least some of his followers a month after pleading guilty to 75 counts of child molestation.
York, who pleaded guilty to state and federal charges but has not yet been sentenced by a federal judge, is waiting in the Jones County jail to be sentenced and taken to a federal prison. In jail, he is receiving significantly more mail than other inmates.
"He does get a lot of mail," said Jones County Sheriff's Maj. Barbara Burnette. "He gets a pile where the average inmate gets one or two letters a day."
Burnette said York is receiving as many as 20 or 30 letters a day, and some of the envelopes contain money.
"He gets books and stuff people send him - books, cards, letters and money," Burnette said.
Burnette did not release the amount of money York has received since entering the jail Jan. 24, the day he pleaded guilty, but she did say it is far more than any other inmate.
Before pleading guilty, York was in custody at the Putnam County Sheriff's Office where he received fewer letters but still more than average, according to administrative assistant Teresa Slade.
York was in the Putnam County jail Jan. 6-24 when he pleaded guilty and was transferred to Jones County.
In those 18 days, York received money from three or four visitors totaling $230. The money went into an account managed by the sheriff's office through which York could buy a variety of personal items once a week ranging from toothpaste to shaving lotion to candies and snacks.
In his three weeks at the Putnam County jail, York spent a total of $254 in two separate "store-call" purchases.
York is the founder of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, a quasi-religious organization he began in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the early 1970s as an Islamic sect. The group moved to a 476-acre farm in 1993, and York began claiming to be an alien from the planet Rizq.
In recent years the Nuwaubians have adopted ancient Egyptian themes, building pyramids and other Egyptian-style structures on its compound.
York was arrested on federal warrants in May and was subsequently indicted by a Putnam County grand jury in a 208-count indictment. In January, York pleaded guilty to two federal charges - one of financial fraud and another of transporting children across state lines for sexual purposes. He also pleaded guilty to 77 state counts involving child sexual molestation and two counts of influencing a witness.
York is expected to be sentenced to serve 13 years in a federal prison with his state sentence to run concurrent. He will be 71-years-old when he is eligible for parole.
Four women who were among his followers also face state charges of participating in the child molestation with York.
When he pleaded guilty, he implicated each of the four women in the counts he pleaded guilty to, but the four women remain free on bond and have not been tried yet.

Survivors Speak out about Bizarre Sect Leader, Sentenced to Prison

New York-WABC
February 7, 2003

Tonight, an insider's story about a bizarre, Brooklyn-based religious sect and allegations of widespread child molestation by the group's leader. The leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors pleaded guilty to scores of sex abuse charges and will spend years in prison. Now his victims finally feel it is safe to speak out. One insider talked exclusively with The Investigators' Sarah Wallace.
How could someone get away with abusing countless children- allegedly two generations of victims for nearly 30 years? Tonight, we have an incredible story from within and a warning about what can happen when an entire community gives over their collective lives to one person.
For most of her life it was all Habiba Washington ever knew. The 27-year-old was born into the communal world of the Ansaru Allah community in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The outside world was shunned.
Habiba Washington: "Because the community is basically blocked from the outside world, you don't know anything but what you know there."
What she could not know is how wrong it all was.
Washington: "The abuse go beyond, further beyond child molestation. It's the fact that families were separated. People were physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually abused for years."
Girls and boys, separated from their parents, housed in two buildings on Bushwick Avenue. Every move of every one dictated by their leader Dwight York.
Washington: "He would fill you up with his information, with his indoctrination... Take away from you, everything that you know. Tell you that this is what the white man has been teaching you and it's not the right way... it's the wrong way of thinking, it's the wrong way of living. That everything I am teaching you is the right way."
His religious teachings changed with whatever doctrine he thought would attract followers. First they were Muslims, then Hebrews. When York moved the group to rural Georgia in 1993 he decided on an Egyptian theme. And there, in the center of the Bible Belt, several hundred followers became Christians. But the ultimate "god" was Dwight York, who staged an elaborate "Savior's Day" every June on his birthday.
Sarah Wallace, Eyewitness News: "It was clearly a cult, correct?"
Washington: "Clearly a cult. When you're in it, you don't see it, you don't see that you're a cult, because you really, really believe you're doing something for your people. It's like, 'No, we're not a cult. We're helping black people. Like he'll say something like, 'your average cult, tell us how many black cults do you know?' And it's like, 'OK we're not a cult because we're black.' Every cult the government has busted has been a white cult."
York promised empowerment, instead he enslaved and abused. Female followers living on the 400-acre, heavily guarded compound were kept separate from the men. Usually, York victimized little girls, but sometimes boys as well.
Washington: "He raised us. He had a garden. It was like a garden, and he was the gardener and he picked us like flocks.
Wallace: "To do what ever he wanted?"
Washington: "To do whatever he wanted. It started off with girls my age, 13, there was like a group of us that it started off with and then it was the younger age and then it became younger. And when he got comfortable with the fact that he was doing it, like I said, no limits. And because everybody had been so afraid of opening their mouths for years, so afraid, he also realized that nobody was going to speak against me, because he's made comments. Comments like, 'If you ever open your mouth, I'll have you killed.'"
Habiba finally left the compound a year and a half ago, returning to New York. Only then, from the outside, could she truly see the truth within.
Washington: "You watch the news, you hear about people who rape people. You hear about child molesters and it's like, 'OK, but this is how I lived my life.'"
The turning point: A reunion with several ex-followers. Habiba and other victims agreed to tell their story to federal and state authorities.
On January 24th, Dwight York avoided a trial by pleading guilty in a Georgia courtroom to 77 sex charges. He'll spend at least 13 years in a federal prison. Habiba would have been one of the witnesses. Now, she's rebuilding her life, plans to go to law school and become an advocate for children.
Washington: "That community took the most important part of our lives away from us."
Wallace: "Which is?"
Washington: "Which is our childhood, when we were the most vulnerable."
We spoke with a number of women and teenage girls who had been scheduled to testify against York. Many of them are disappointed that he pleaded guilty and avoided a trial. The victims wanted to face York in court and tell him to his face he can't hurt them any more.

Sect Had Roots In Brooklyn

Newsday.com

January 26, 2003

By Tina Susman

Early in the morning of April 19, 1979, Horace Greene was shot dead on a Brooklyn street as he went to open the day care center he ran.
It seems the sort of crime that should have been easy to crack. It was brazen, committed on a public street. The victim was a high-profile local activist.
The city offered a $10,000 reward. There was even a witness who provided a description of a bearded gunman wearing a Muslim robe and cap, recalls Bill Clark, a retired New York Police homicide detective.
Twenty-four years later, though, no one has been charged in the murder, despite police and FBI investigations that pointed to involvement of a black Islamic group whose leader, then known as Isa Muhammad, was accused by neighbors, former supporters and the FBI of terrorizing the Bushwick section where his Ansaru Allah Community was based in the late 1970s.
A 1993 FBI report based on information from Ansaru Allah followers says Greene angered Muhammad, who is now known as Dwight York or Dr. Malachi Z. York, by doing what few in the neighborhood dared: speaking out against York's racially charged rhetoric and his attempts to expand his group's influence.
According to the report, informants identified Greene's killer as a York confidant and Ansaru Allah member known as Hashim the Warrior. The man is now in prison for an unrelated, 1983 double murder.
York denied Ansaru Allah was involved in crime, but several of his closest confidants were charged with various crimes, including arson, assault, and robbery in the 1970s-'90s in cities where Ansaru Allah was active, including New York.
How York managed to operate in New York from the early 1970s until he left for Georgia in 1993 can be attributed to the politics of the time and to the strict control he appears to have had over those around him, say law enforcement officials.
The Ansaru Allah Community's growth, coincided with rising tensions in the United States between the government and Muslim groups, Clark noted.
"Police were very sensitive to observing the religious sanctity of institutions like this," he said.
In addition, police were preoccupied with other things, such as the crack epidemic, said Stephen Lungen, the district attorney of Sullivan County, where York ran a heavily guarded compound from 1983-93.
"Without someone telling you something is wrong, you just don't have the right to bang the door down and tear the place apart," Lungen said.
Brooklyn police had the same problem. "Potential witnesses became less and less cooperative as they got more and more frightened," Clark said.

Sect's Leader Takes a Fall

Guilty of sex charges in Ga.
Newsday.com
January 26, 2003
By Tina Susman

Eatonton, Ga. -- Strangers are sure to stand out in a small town like this, especially strangers who come from Brooklyn, dress like cowboys, claim allegiance to a leader from a distant planet and build 40-foot-high pyramids on their land.
The locals could handle that. What worried them is when the newcomers' hermetic leader, Dwight York, declared his 476-acre spread a sovereign state, posted armed guards, and began publishing angry fliers alleging a racist conspiracy after local officials cited him for zoning and building violations.
Then, the letters arrived: typed, single-spaced appeals for help sent to local law enforcement authorities from people living inside Tama-Re, as York called his ornate pyramid-, sphinx- and obelisk-studded property on Shady Dale Road.
"It said, 'We're begging for help. York is molesting children,' and it named names of children," said Francis Ford, an Eatonton attorney who had represented the county in its zoning disputes with York and his group, the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. "I wasn't expecting that, but I believed it. The Nuwaubians are evil."
The letters helped crack what prosecutors say is Georgia's biggest child abuse case ever, which led to 197 state and four federal charges.
York pleaded guilty Thursday to two federal charges, one involving transport of minors from upstate Sullivan County, N.Y., to Georgia for sex. Friday, he pleaded guilty to 77 of the state charges, which will put him in prison for the rest of his life
To Sheriff Howard Sills, Ford and other locals, the case justifies the wariness they felt toward York and his disciples since their arrival in 1993.
To Nuwaubian supporters, who over the years included Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, NAACP officials and Georgia politicians, the case was evidence of racial harassment Southern style, in which a white, small-town sheriff targeted a black man who challenged him.
"If this group had white skin and was building pyramids, they would be ignored," said Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), before learning of the guilty plea. Brooks said later that he was surprised to hear of York's plea but hoped the group would stay together.
Prosecutors denied being driven by racism, noting that York's alleged victims were black, and that most of the testimony came from blacks, including many who said they were abused in New York when York was based there.
It's difficult to get the Nuwaubians' point of view because they shun the media. The group has stuck by York and denied claims by the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center that it is an anti-white hate group, despite York's description of whites as "demons."
One Nuwaubian, Anthony Evans, said negative publicity had taken its toll. Part of the Nuwaubians' spread is for sale, and more may be added, said Evans. "It's like you can see the writing on the wall from Putnam County saying, 'Get out, Get out.'"
The property, a former game farm, resembles an abandoned King Tut theme park erected alongside a two-lane rural highway. "Welcome to the Holyland," reads a giant sign facing the road, where skid marks indicate the shock of drivers faced with a field of Egyptian artifacts rising out of the countryside.
In the past, York's June 6 "Savior's Day" celebrations there would draw thousands of followers to celebrate their Nuwaubian beliefs, which are difficult to define. Nuwaubians say that their group embraces all races and religions, and that their "Master Teacher" is York, an alien from the planet Rizq in the galaxy of Illwuyn. York has promised them that a spaceship will arrive this year and carry a lucky 144,000 to a better place.
Why York, who now goes by Dr. Malachi Z. York, left New York for Eatonton in 1993 is open to debate. His critics say he chose Eatonton, a predominantly black town of 6,500, because he saw it as an ideal place to find supporters and an area too rural to deal with building and other violations.
Literature produced by the Nuwaubians says Eatonton was chosen because of American Indian rock formations in the area. York, 56, claims to be descended from the Yamassee tribe of Georgia.
What's clear is that the move south followed a checkered history in New York, where York served prison time for resisting arrest, assault and possession of a dangerous weapon and later started an Islamic sect in Brooklyn. An FBI report accuses the group of running a virtual crime syndicate in Bushwick during the late 1970s.
It was only in 1997, after a television station visited Tama-Re and mentioned that the facilities included a nightclub, that Eatonton officials confronted York. By this time, the Nuwaubians had traded their cowboy clothes for long robes and fezzes, and Tama-Re's residents were believed to number in the hundreds. The county cited York for running illegal commercial enterprises and for other building violations.
York cried racism and accused local officials such as Sills and Ford of everything from murder to wife-beating and cat-kicking. Hundreds of York followers would hand out fliers claiming a conspiracy. Locals became alarmed as the dispute grew uglier.
Until then, Sills said the Nuwaubians, who adopted that name after leaving New York, were considered strange but relatively harmless. "It was unusual to see a group of black people dressed in cowboy hats, boots and belts with big shiny belt buckles," said Sills. "I can't tell you I didn't notice it, because I did, but I didn't do anything about it."
The letters alleging child molestation transformed what had been a zoning dispute into a criminal investigation. York was arrested last May.
A raid of Tama-Re confirmed accusers' claims that York's followers lived in squalor. Mark Robinson, an investigator who took part, described "filth, raw sewage everywhere, and people just stacked on top of each other."
York's accusers said men and women were housed in separate, barracks-like buildings while York lived in luxury in a large house with a swimming pool.
York, meanwhile, says his clashes with Georgia officials have revived his belief that whites are demons. "I found out that trying to be a nice guy and work with white folks just don't work," a Nuwaubian newsletter quoted York as saying before his arrest.

Fall of the Nuwaubian empire?

Athens Banner-Herald
January 25, 2003
By Stephen Gurr

Doctor, reverend, master teacher, rabbi -- Dwight ''Malachi'' York has used all those monikers almost interchangeably. But as he prepares to assume a new title -- inmate -- the future of his empire hangs in serious doubt.
Most believe the religious sect York founded some 10 years ago on 400 acres of Putnam County farmland -- the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors -- peaked in the late 1990s, when thousands would attend the group's Savior Day celebrations each June. Flush with the success of his movement, York bought a $550,000 home in a quiet Athens subdivision and spent another $385,000 on a commercial property on West Broad Street.
His followers, dressed in their colorful, quasi-Egyptian garb, were welcomed warmly in the Classic City, where they participated in city parades and were feted as honored guests at the fall 2000 local NAACP banquet.
But today there are few signs that the Nuwaubian movement continues to thrive. Work has halted on the faux-Moorish building at the corner of West Broad and South Church streets, first proposed as a lodge then licensed as a bookstore.
York's store at an Atlanta Highway strip mall, ''All Eyes on Egypt,'' was closed Friday, the same day he pleaded guilty to 77 counts of child molestation and related charges. No one answered the door at York's mansion on Mansfield Court.
Reached earlier in the week, Nuwaubian members declined to comment.
While the government seized $400,000 in cash and numerous guns found in searches of his Putnam County compound and Athens home, federal and state prosecutors have no plans to take any of York's other assets.
But others have claims against York. The father of one victim has filed a $1 billion civil suit against the Brooklyn-born sect leader.
''There will definitely be some people coming after him,'' said Manchester attorney Ronny Jones, who says York still owes him $15,000 in unpaid legal fees. Last month Clarke County Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens issued a judgment against York for the bill, which was accrued when Jones was assisting York in a Putnam County zoning dispute.
''I'm trying to collect on the judgment,'' Jones said.
It may not be easy. While York's mail-order business selling Egyptian-themed jewelry, clothes and books was apparently thriving, he eventually had them incorporated in other people's names, according to former Putnam County Attorney Frank Ford, who had frequent clashes with York over zoning.
As for the properties still in York's name, including the home and building, Ford doubts they have much equity.
''Once payments stop being made, they will probably revert to the lender for foreclosure,'' Ford said.
Athens-Clarke County officials will move next week to rescind York's building permit for work on the Broad Street store, formerly the location of Ideal Amusements. Director of Building Inspections Ken Hix said officials can cancel a building permit if a project goes six months without significant progress.
''We have not had any inspections there since May,'' Hix said.
The aura surrounding York seems to have faded among his followers, as well. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills described a ''noticeable exodus of sorts'' at the Putnam County compound.
''I can say a lot of them disappeared from around here after his arrest,'' Sills said.
While as many as 200 followers have packed court hearings for York in the past, only two supporters were present for his guilty plea Friday. Ford believes York put the word out for them to stay away.
''They didn't know this was going on,'' Ford said of the negotiated plea. ''He kept them out of the courtroom while he was making these admissions.''
''Based on what I saw today, (the group) has definitely weakened,'' said Putnam County Assistant District Attorney Dawn Baskin. ''I would seriously doubt they would continue as a community in Putnam County.''
Others aren't so sure. Jones believes York's daughter, Hagar York-El, could step into the void left by York.
''She could definitely speak for her father and continue his teachings,'' Jones said.
In Athens, it's harder to gauge the Nuwaubians' continued presence. But the predominantly black group has won friends in the African-American community and been praised as hard-working, self-sufficient people.
''They're people who go to work every day, pay rent or own homes,'' said local activist Thomas Oglesby. ''They bring entrepreneurship to this town. You've got brick masons, carpenters, locksmiths, bakers, all of them have something going.''
Oglesby doesn't think York's conviction will lead the group to dissolve.
''That's not going to happen,'' he said. ''This group is not a small group, this group isn't just in Georgia -- it's nationwide and worldwide.''
Said Walter Allen Jr., who runs the local African-American magazine ''Zebra'' and has employed some Nuwaubians, ''this case has been going on for eight months, and they've still been functioning.''

Dr. Malachi Z. York is sent to ADX Colorado Supermax Federal Prison

A place that America send prisoners it want to punish the most.

Although Dr. Malachi Z. York have no history of violence and was known by many as a peace maker, and even published literature that extols American Government and demands loyalty to the country, the government sends him to a prison that carries the worst of the worst. As Lance Tapley, a journalist who has written extensively on prisons in the U.S., has made critical observations on the use of solitary confinement. “Supermax confinement is repulsive, immoral mass torture that is historically unprecedented. I would also suggest it is illegal under international law,” he told the National Lawyers Guild at its 70th anniversary. View the video to the left to find out more about ADX.




The government sends terrorists, serial killers, mobster to ADX. And now they want to send the prisoners from Guantanamobay. Those prisoners according to several reports don't even have no business of being there. The government doesn't have any evidence against the prisoners of Guantanamobay. And yet they are being held without their rights. Why are we letting them get away with this. First Bush gets aways with invading our privacy. And according to latest reports the extensive amount of data collected is unbelievable. Total violation of our civil and constitutional rights. Talk about big brother

Sect leader admits he molested children

The Athens Banner-Herald
January 25, 2003
By Stephen Gurr

Dwight ''Malachi'' York admitted Friday to molesting 13 children from his quasi-Egyptian religious sect at their Putnam County compound, and prosecutors said he also molested numerous children in his Athens mansion on Mansfield Court.
In a negotiated plea, the 57-year-old leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors agreed with Putnam County prosecutors to a sentence of 14 years in prison, followed by 36 years of probation, Assistant District Attorney Dawn Baskin said. The prison term will run concurrently with a federal sentence of 14 years he is expected to receive in U.S District Court after admitting to similar crimes on Thursday.
Among the state charges, York pleaded guilty to 40 counts of aggravated child molestation, 34 counts of child molestation, one count of child exploitation and two counts of influencing witnesses.
York pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to one count of unlawful transport of minors for the purpose of engaging in sex acts and one count of attempting to evade financial reporting requirements. Prosecutors are recommending 14 years to be served concurrently with the state sentence, U.S. Attorney Pam Lightsey said. The government is also seizing about $400,000 in cash and about 20 guns confiscated in Athens and Eatonton.
York will likely serve out his entire sentence in a federal penitentiary, Baskin said. ''This plea is pretty carefully calibrated where it's long enough to be real punishment,'' said former Putnam County Attorney Frank Ford, who was present at Friday's hearing and has had frequent clashes with the Nuwaubians over zoning issues at the group's compound. ''It's short enough that he won't die in prison, but it's long enough that he won't live too much longer after he's released.''
York would be 71 years old if he served the full prison term. With good behavior, he would be eligible for parole after 12 years and nine months.
During Friday's hearing, Baskin told Judge William A. Prior Jr. that witnesses could testify to at least 45 similar acts of child molestation that occurred in York's Athens home. York has never been charged with crimes committed in Clarke County, but was indicted last year on 208 counts involving molestation at the group's Putnam County compound.
Reached after the plea, Baskin said evidence gathered during a May 2002 search of the Athens home corroborated statements given by the victims.
''We know for at least half of the victims listed in the indictment, their sexual molestation began in Putnam County,'' Baskin said. ''From the time Mr. York moved into the house in Athens in 1999 until his return to Putnam County in early 2001, many of these victims were transported from Eatonton to Athens, where they would stay for weeks on end.''
Baskin said the children had to ask York for even the most minor things in writing, which he called ''request submissions.'' If the children refused to engage in sex acts with York, he would deny their requests, Baskin said.
Reached Friday, Clarke County District Attorney Ken Mauldin said he had been made aware of the alleged acts in Clarke County by Putnam County District Attorney Fred Bright. Mauldin said part of Bright's negotiated plea with York stipulated that he would not be prosecuted for the crimes alleged in Clarke County. All of the alleged victims in Clarke County were included in Bright's case against York in Putnam County, Mauldin said.
Baskin said though the 13 victims were prepared to testify, they also sought a resolution where they could avoid re-living their childhood traumas in open court.
''These victims all came under tremendous pressure from the followers of Mr. York,'' Baskin said. ''A lot of them wanted this to come to an end. Out of a courtesy to our victims we decided to agree to a plea of this nature. If there had been a trial and a conviction, we would have looked at years of appeals that would not bring a conclusion. This brings a conclusion.''
And the plea, Baskin says, unmasks York.
''What we gave to our victims is that Mr. York stood up in court and said, 'I did it,'?'' Baskin said. ''There's no way his followers can say he was railroaded or there was a conspiracy.''
Said Ford, ''The biggest thing is this guy who claimed to be a messiah stood up in court and admitted he was nothing less than a monster.''

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.

Ga. Religious Sect Founder Pleads Guilty

The Associated Press
January 24, 2003

Macon, GA -- The founder of a religious sect in central Georgia admitted in federal court Thursday to having sex with children in the group and pleaded guilty to two charges.
If the court accepts a plea agreement, Malachi York will serve 15 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Sentencing has not been scheduled.
York allegedly transported minors across state lines for sex after the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors settled in rural Putnam County. He pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful transport of minors for the purpose of engaging in sex acts and a count of trying to evade financial reporting requirements.
York is scheduled to stand trial Tuesday on state charges, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Moultrie Jr. said Thursday that York has reached a similar plea deal with Georgia. A hearing in the state's case has been set for Friday.

Lawyers argue details in York case

The Telegraph
January 18, 2003
By Rob Peecher

Eatonton -- With just more than a week to go before Nuwaubian sect leader Malachi York stands trial for sexually abusing 13 children, a Superior Court judge is still considering one issue key to the prosecution.
The judge said he will rule next week on whether to allow evidence seized from York's home shortly after his arrest last May.
York, who was scheduled to be tried with co-defendant Kathy Johnson, may stand trial alone. Before Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge William A. Prior began hearing final pre-trial motions Friday, Johnson's attorney Brian Steele announced his intention to appeal one of Prior's Thursday rulings.
Steele had filed a motion asking the judge to set Johnson free because, he argued, the prosecution's time to get her to trial under his speedy trial demand had expired. Prior, though, ruled that the speedy trial demand gives the prosecution until March 17 to try her.
Steele said he will appeal the ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which effectively takes Johnson out of Prior's jurisdiction until the appellate court issues a ruling.
Unless that ruling comes before the trial begins Jan. 28, York will stand trial alone.
York is the head of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, a predominately black fraternal organization that moved to Putnam County a decade ago. Last year, federal and local officers raided the group's 476-acre Putnam County village to serve state and federal search warrants.
Just before the raid, York was arrested in Milledgeville and taken into federal custody. He faces four federal counts of allegedly transporting minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them. He faces 197 counts in a state indictment accusing him of sexually abusing children. The children are all former members of his group.
Johnson and three other women were indicted with York on the state charges - each woman facing significantly fewer charges than York. Prior agreed last month to sever the other three women as co-defendants, requiring the state to try them separately, but he denied a similar motion from Johnson.
As the hearing Friday was nearing an end, York - who wore a red fez with a black tassle - stood up and repeated a statement he made Thursday in court that he is "secured" and does not give permission to use his name.
"If you proceed it will cost you $500,000," York said.
He also said "all deals are off" if Prior continues to use his name.
Though York's attorney Ed Garland said he had nothing to say regarding York's statement, York was referring to "common law" practices the Nuwaubians have used in the past. Common law courts are not legally binding and are typically associated with anti-government militias in the Midwest.
During the hearing, Nuwaubians gave members of the media a "copyright notice" that purports to provide notice that York has copyrighted his name and aliases and the document threatens certain financial penalties for "unauthorized" use of his name. The documents were stamped: "Received, Jan. 08, 2003" by the "Clerk of Federal Moorish Cherokee Consular Court, USA."
Also Friday, Prior denied bond for York, even though a former elementary school principal and two Macon police officers testified on his behalf.
Prior also said he will allow the prosecution to use testimony regarding the child molestation, which amounts to 64 similar transactions. According to assistant district attorney Dawn Baskin, this testimony will come from adults who say they were sexually abused by York while they were children, people who "solicited" sex from children and adults on York's behalf, and from adults who participated in group sex acts with York similar to group sex acts the prosecution alleges York participated in with children.
York's attorney Manny Aurora said that with 197 counts against his client, the prosecution didn't need 64 more.
"They've got 197 counts - let's fight over those," Aurora said.
Prior also said he would allow the defense to put up York's followers as witnesses who can testify that they lived at the village and were not molested. Baskin argued against it, but Aurora said the prosecution only wants to "let in all the bad stuff."
"That's our whole defense," Aurora said.

Judge turns down Nuwaubian leader's motions

York's trial to begin Jan. 28 in Covington

Macon Telegraph
January 17, 2003
By Rob Peecher

Eatonton -- A Superior Court judge Thursday denied a series of motions from Malachi York to again move the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors leader's trial, to postpone the trial and to allow defense psychiatrists to interview the prosecution's witnesses.
York faces nearly 200 charges of molesting children. Co-defendant Kathy Johnson - referred to by York's followers as his "main wife" - is charged with 12 counts of molesting children.
Ocmulgee Circuit Superior Court Judge William A. Prior will resume hearing motions this morning. The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 28 in Covington.
Among the motions denied Thursday by Prior was one to dismiss Johnson from the case because the prosecution failed to hold her trial within a set amount of time.
Johnson's attorney, Brian Steele, filed a demand for a speedy trial Sept. 5 - in the June term of court - giving the prosecution two terms of court in which to hold the trial. Steele argued that because jurors in the June term were never dismissed by a judge's order, the demand for speedy trial began running immediately, even though there were only 10 days left in that term.
"Unless there's an order stating these jurors are excused and dismissed, they are subject to recall," Steele said.
Putnam County Clerk of Court Sheila Layson testified that in the June term of court, she had notified jurors through a telephone recording that they did not need to show up for court, but no judge had issued an order dismissing them.
District Attorney Fred Bright argued that the jurors were not impaneled because Layson had notified them not to show up for court because no more trials were scheduled. Layson testified that a Superior Court judge had told her to notify the jurors not to show up.
Steele's argument was impassioned, and he was adamant that he was correct in his interpretation of the law.
"I understand the law," Steele told Prior. "I read every statute that comes out. É It's my passion. I understand I look strange saying acquit Mrs. Johnson based on a piece of paper that I filed, but that is the law."
Steele said he would appeal Prior's decision.
Prior also took under advisement a motion to suppress evidence seized from York's home in the village during a search on May 8.
Before Thursday's hearing got under way, Prior referred to the defense motions as "York's motions." York then stood up and said, "I am secured and do not give permission for anybody to use my name."
Though York's attorney said he had "no comment" on his client's statement, York was referring to "common law" practices the Nuwaubians have used in the past. Common law courts are not legally binding and are typically associated with anti-government militias in Ohio and other parts of the Midwest. In 1999, a common law adherent, Everett Stout, advised Nuwaubians on how to deal with problems the group was having over zoning and building issues.
Prior took under advisement a motion from the defense to limit the number of investigators allowed to sit at the prosecution's table during the trial.
Manny Aurora, one of York's attorneys, argued the presence of the law enforcement personnel would make witnesses feel "intimidated and uncomfortable," but assistant district attorney Dawn Baskin said the investigators are instrumental for the prosecution in presenting its case.
Baskin is asking that Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills and one of his detectives, an FBI agent and the DA's investigator be allowed to stay in the courtroom, even though they all may be called to testify.
The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors is a predominately black group that refers to York as "the Master Teacher." It began as an Islamic sect in the early 1970s in Brooklyn, N.Y., but when York and his followers moved to Putnam County 10 years ago, the group claimed York was an extra-terrestrial. The group built pyramids and other ancient Egyptian-style structures on the 476-acre village in western Putnam County, and for nearly six years has been at odds with county officials over building and zoning issues.
In May, authorities arrested York and raided the group's village after several former members came forward with allegations of child molestation.

Cult leader's child molestation trial set for Jan. 28

Associated Press
January 17, 2003

Eatonton, Ga. -- A religious cult leader facing nearly 200 child molestation charges is scheduled for trial later this month in suburban Atlanta.
Ocmulgee Circuit Superior Court Judge William A. Prior turned down several defense motions Thursday, setting the stage for the trial of Malachi York, leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, to begin on Jan. 28 in Covington, southeast of Atlanta.
The trial was moved to metro Atlanta to ensure the case is not tainted by publicity.
The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors is a predominantly black group that refers to York as "the master teacher."
It began as an Islamic sect in the early 1970s in Brooklyn, N.Y., but when York and his followers moved to Putnam County 10 years ago, the group claimed York was an extraterrestrial.
Followers have built pyramids and other ancient Egyptian-style structures at the group's 476-acre village in western Putnam County. For nearly six years, they have been at odds with county officials over building and zoning issues.
In May, authorities arrested York and raided the group's village after several former members came forward with allegations of child molestation.
Co-defendant Kathy Johnson, referred to by York's followers as his "main wife," is charged with 12 counts of molesting children.

Nuwaubians distribute fliers in Newton County

Leaflets contain information on case against Malachi York
Macon Telegraph
December, 27, 2002
By Rob Peecher

Covington -- Though Malachi York's trial was moved to Newton County because of pre-trial publicity, some of his followers are trying to get their view of the case to potential jurors before the trial.
Since Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge William A. Prior announced four weeks ago that he was moving the trial to Newton County, Nuwaubians have been handing out fliers and leaving tabloid newspapers on car windshields in downtown Covington and at area shopping centers.
The fliers contain information and opinions mostly about Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills and the case against York, the leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. York, who was arrested in May by the FBI, is charged in a 208-count state indictment with sexually abusing children.
District Attorney Fred Bright, who is prosecuting York and the woman referred to as his "main wife," Kathy Johnson, said the flier and newspaper appear to be intended to sway potential jurors.