This is old news, but every newspaper that I have read come sup with other info. This is from the Amsterdam news..
Malachi York convicted of child molestation
by HERB BOYD
Special to the AmNews
Originally posted 1/28/2004
Ever since he and his followers left the Bushwick section of Brooklyn in the late seventies, Dr. Malachi Z. York-El has been targeted by law enforcement agencies. Last week the controversial leader, whose most recent appellation is Maku Chief Black Thunderbird Eagle, was convicted of molesting boys and girls at the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, an Egyptian-style compound known as Tama-Re, in Putnam County, Georgia.
York, 58, could face from 20-80 years in prison. During the trial, which took place in Brunswick, Georgia, 14 boys and girls charged that they had been molested by the leader over a period of time from 1991 through 2002, when federal agents raided the compound.
The government charged that York recruited older girls to groom younger girls for sex with him, and that he used the cult for his own financial gain, according to an AP story.
York was found guilty on 10 counts of child molestation and racketeering, but was acquitted of transporting minors across state lines for unlawful sexual activity.
Several years ago the Nuwaubians, who define themselves as the Yamassee Native American Moors of the Creek Nation and thereby beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, were embattled with Sheriff Howard Sills of Putnam County. He had raided the compound and padlocked a club and a church, claiming the group didn't have a permit to operate them. This led to acrimony and a series of court dates between the Nuwaubians and various county officials.
''We have been harassed again and again by Sheriff Sills,'' said Abdul Mohammed, who has been a follower of Dr. York for more than 25 years. ''First of all, let me say that the whole process is a sham. He was not tried by his peers, who are Native American Moors. Furthermore, his first team of lawyers were working with the prosecution. They were the ones who said he needed a psychiatric examination. Rather than a short period of evaluation to see if he was fit to stand trial, they held him for 68 days.''
Mohammed, who lives in Harlem, said his leader is being persecuted and prosecuted for awakening his people to their sovereign and individual status in this country as Moors and Native Americans. ''A bunch of crackers are not his peers,'' he continued. ''There were only two Blacks among the jurors, and one of them did her best to hold out before being pressured to join the others in the verdict.''
According to York's attorney, Adrian Patrick, his client was being railroaded by bogus testimony concocted by York's son, Jacob, who was angry at his father because he refused to back his musical career. Calls to Patrick were not returned.
''This is a test case, as far as I'm concerned,'' Mohammed said. ''What they want is the land.'' Tama-Re, which is a compound of about 461 acres that is festooned with obelisks, pyramids and statuary resembling ancient Egypt (Kemet), is located in Eatonton, Georgia where it was built by York and his followers beginning in the early 1990s. Over the years it has been visited by such notables as the Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Rev. Jesse Jackson and a number of elected officials and community activists, all of whom have praised York's work and his inspirational leadership.
Mohammed said that his leader was misled by his first attorneys, who advised him to plea bargain because there was no chance he was going to win the case. ''He did this under duress,'' he explained. ''He was tortured and they refused to give him his medicine for his heart condition. He has had several seizures since his incarceration.''
The group's Web site,
www.unnm.com, is crammed with information about their leader, who traces his ancestry from ancient Egypt through Ben York, who traveled with Lewis and Clark and members of the Yamassee nation.
A story in the Washington Times last year offers a contrasting picture of York, listing a criminal record, including convictions of rape and assault.
''If he had molested the teenagers, all of whom have recanted, then he would have been diagnosed with the sexually transmitted diseases they had from having sex with each other,'' Mohammed contended.
Another follower of York, El Dey, noted that ''the chief has asserted his indigenous or native status since the 1992 publishing of the Constitution of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors as the government of the Yamassee Native American Moors of the Creek Nation, which places him outside the corporate, federal and state jurisdictions. Any prosecution of tribal laws and subsequent punitive actions must come from tribal law councils established for this purpose.
Carolyn Gould, a certified genealogist, has confirmed the descendancy of York-El to the Massachusetts Native Americans and Ben York, known as “Black Bear.''
