DFACS takes custody of 5 Nuwaubian children
Macon Telegraph May 10, 2002
By Rob Peecher
Eatonton --The Putnam County Department of Family and Children
Services took five children into protective custody during
Wednesday's law enforcement raid at the United Nuwaubian Nation
of Moors village.
The four girls and one boy taken into protective custody range
in age from 13 to 16 years old, Putnam County Sheriff Howard
Sills said.
"We received information about these five children that was
corroborated by others that caused us to seek out the protective
order," Sills said. "We had an order from the Juvenile Court
signed (by a judge) prior to going on the compound. The
children, we suspect, are victims of child molestation."
Agents of the FBI, Putnam County sheriff's deputies and deputies
from other sheriff's offices raided the village at 404 Shady
Dale Road just after federal officers took Nuwaubian leader
Malachi York, 56, and his wife, Kathy Johnson, 33, into custody
in Baldwin County.
York and Johnson, who pleaded not guilty Thursday afternoon in a
federal Magistrate Court, were arrested on warrants accusing
them of transporting children for sexual purposes. York is
accused in all four counts of the federal indictment and Johnson
in one.
Additional state warrants accuse York of 10 counts of aggravated
child molestation and Johnson with one count of aggravated child
molestation. Those state warrants have not yet been served.
Middle District of Georgia U.S. Magistrate Judge Claude W. Hicks
Jr. said the only possible plea for York and Johnson to enter
during Thursday's hearing was not guilty, and Hicks said he will
consider bond for the two in a hearing scheduled for Monday.
Hicks also provided York and Johnson with prison sentence ranges
calculated by federal probation officers and based on federal
sentencing guidelines. Johnson faces a sentence of between five
years, 10 months and seven years, three months. York faces a
sentence of between 11 years, three months and 14 years in a
federal prison. Hicks added, though, that the ranges could
change based on a review of the circumstances.
About a dozen of York's supporters attended the hearing, and one
woman let out an audible gasp as York and Johnson were both led
into the courtroom with restraints on their wrists and ankles.
During Thursday's hearing, York and Johnson both were
represented by former state Sen. Leroy Johnson and his associate
attorney Karen Haines. Hicks said he warns all co-defendants who
come before him that using one attorney to represent both
defendants has "pitfalls," as "competing interests" may arise
during the course of the trial.
Wednesday's raid was prompted by state and federal search
warrants giving law officers the authority to take control of
the property and search it, but that search ended abruptly when
authorities received information that Nuwaubians were preparing
to retake the village by force, Sills said.
"The search was probably not as thorough as it could have been,"
Sills said. "The FBI received direct information that the
Nuwaubians were going to arm themselves, mass and try to retake
the compound. I immediately blocked the road again, and it was
reported to me that we had a couple hundred of them massed at
either side of the roadblocks."
Sills said that although he felt confident that the law
enforcement presence at the village, which at that time
consisted of about half of some 150 federal and local officers
involved in the initial raid, could have prevailed in a
confrontation, it would have meant "unnecessary bloodshed."
Authorities decided to conclude their search rather than risk a
confrontation, Sills said.
Sills said he saw "maybe one-50th" of the potential evidence
taken from the property, but he was aware of hundreds of
videotapes being confiscated, computers and numerous weapons,
ranging from handguns to assault rifles.
"In York's bedroom alone, there were at least three assault
rifles and other assorted handguns and what I would call regular
long guns," Sills said. "In their barn where the men live, they
had a lot of (weapons) in it."
The evidence taken from the village is still in federal custody
and has to be examined to determine its value, Sills said.
Omer Reid, president of the Baldwin County chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
attended Thursday's hearing and reiterated statements made by
some of York's supporters Wednesday.
"Nothing has been proven," Reid said. "There are only
allegations ... I don't think (York's) character should be
demeaned in any way."
Sills rebuked criticism by some of York's supporters that the
raid was politically motivated or had to do with a desire on his
part to "destroy the Nuwaubians."
"We have victims of what our society has always considered to be
one of the most deplorable acts," Sills said. "The victims came
to us. The victims tried to get help.
"I am charged with the duty to protect the lives, property and
morals of the people of this county. Now, if a person charged
with that duty carries out that duty Ð if that is in some way a
vendetta or harassment, then those people need to examine their
morals, if that's what they think."
