Nuwaubian sect leader will undergo psychological evaluation

Athens Banner-Herald/August 13, 2003
By Joe Johnson

Religious sect leader and admitted child molester Dwight ''Malachi'' York is to be transferred this week from a Georgia county jail to a federal penitentiary where he will undergo psychological testing to determine his fitness to stand trial, York's defense attorney said Tuesday.

Atlanta attorney Manubir Arora said exactly where his client will be examined was unknown as of Tuesday, but a likely place would be the Butner Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C.

''This is something that will be determined by the (U.S.) Marshal Service,'' Arora said.

The evaluation of the former Athens resident's competency is to be performed under the order of the new judge in York's case, U.S. District Court Judge C. Ashley Royal, who denied York's recent motion to void an earlier order for a psychological exam made by Royal's predecessor.

U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson recused himself from the case July 18, after York's defense team alleged Lawson had lost his impartiality by becoming an unwitting participant in plea-bargain negotiations.

York had already undergone one court-ordered psychological exam, which raised questions about his mental competency, and further evaluation was ordered by Lawson following the judge's June 25 rejection of a plea bargain York had made with federal prosecutors.

York, 58, is leader of a religious sect called the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, and prosecutors allege that under the guise of spiritual leader and deity, he sexually abused the underage children of his followers at the Nuwaubian compound in Eatonton and at York's mansion on Mansfield Court in Athens.

York pleaded guilty to 74 state counts of child molestation and other related charges, and as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors had pleaded guilty to a single count of transporting children across state lines for sexual purposes in return for a recommendation he serve 15 years in prison.

In rejecting the federal plea agreement, Lawson said 15 years in prison would be too lenient a penalty for York. He told attorneys he would agree to a 20-year prison sentence, which prompted the defense's motion for Lawson to recuse himself.

Suddenly faced with the prospect of a trial, York's attorneys asked Lawson for another psychiatric examination because they said York was unable to assist in his own defense, claiming he was a native American tribal chief over whom U.S. courts held no jurisdiction.

Two days after Lawson granted the motion, a new addition to York's defense team filed a motion asking Law-son to rescind his order for the psychiatric exam. Miami attorney Frank Rubino claimed in the motion that after spending two hours with his new client, he determined York was able to assist in his own defense.

In denying Rubino's motion, Royal said he was relying on the report that resulted from York's first examination.

''Because (the) report provides reasonable cause for the court to believe (York) may presently be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to "understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense, the court will proceed on its own motion for determination of (York's) mental competency,'' Royal wrote in his July 24 order.

York had been scheduled to begin trial Aug. 4, but the trial has been delayed indefinitely because of the change of judges and the pending psychological examination.