The long-delayed
trial of religious sect leader and admitted child molester Dwight ''Malachi''
York has been set to begin Jan. 5 in federal court.
Originally scheduled to start Aug. 4 in U.S. District Court
in Macon, York's law-yers had requested a a new trial date because they said
they needed more time to prepare in light of court-ordered psychiatric testing
that is being done on their client.
York was transferred last month from a Georgia county jail to
a federal penitentiary in order to undergo the testing to determine his fitness
to stand trial.
The evaluation of the former Athens resident's competency is
being done 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 psychiatric 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 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 allegethat under the guise of spiritual
leader and deity, he sexually abused the underagechildren of his followers at
the Nuwaubian compound in Eatonton and at York'smansion on Mansfield Court in
Athens. York pleaded guiltyto 74 state counts of child molestation and other
related charges, and as part of an agreement with federalprosecutors had
pleaded guilty to a single count of transporting children across statelines 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, as he told the attorneys 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 Lawson 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 the motion, Royal said he was relying on the
report that resulted from York's first examination, which concluded that York
was possibly suffering from a ''mental disease or defect'' that could render him
incompetent to stand trial.