Judge denies new trial for York

United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors leader Malachi York was denied a request for a new trial Monday afternoon by U.S. District Court Judge Ashley Royal.

York is serving a 135-year federal sentence for his conviction in January of child molestation and racketeering.

A hearing was held Friday on York’s request for a new trial, which was based on sworn statements witness Habiybah Washington gave after his conviction, in which she said she lied during the trial and that she was not molested by York.

On the witness stand Friday, however, she said her testimony against York during his trial was true.

Washington, 28, testified during the trial that York molested her beginning when she was 13 and that he also molested other children affiliated with the quasi-religious group.

York supporters said Washington’s testimony Friday was false, because she said on the stand that her reason for changing her story after the trial was sympathy for York over the severity of his sentence.

“I couldn’t handle the sentence,” she testified.

York was sentenced April 22, and his supporters point out that a videotaped statement Washington made denying that York molested her was made April 18. That date is displayed on screen on the video.

“It’s obvious that Ms. Washington has been lying,” Nuwaubian member Willie Walker said Monday. “The dates don’t lie, and perjury is perjury.”

Attempts to reach U.S. Attorney Maxwell Wood on Monday evening were unsuccessful. He did say after Friday’s hearing that Washington’s testimony was among more than 50 witnesses whose stories have not changed.

Walker said Royal and the prosecution are biased against York, or Washington’s changing story would have resulted in him getting a new trial or being cleared of the charges against him.

“He was convicted based on a lie,” Walker said. “If it were anybody else, the case would be thrown out and they would go free.”

York started the Nuwaubian group in the late 1960s in Brooklyn and in 1993 moved its headquarters from suburban New York to rural Putnam County. Government officials have labeled the group a cult. Members built Egyptian-style pyramids and monuments, along with American Indian-style totem poles on the 476-acres the group used as its headquarters.

The remaining members living on that property were evicted by U.S. marshals this month as part of a forfeiture of York’s assets to the government. York was charged in 2002 following a four-year investigation involving the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.

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