Appeals court upholds conviction of Nuwaubian leader

<p>A federal appeals court Thursday upheld the conviction and sentence of Dwight "Malachi" York, who was the leader of the religious sect called the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors based in middle Georgia.</p><p>York, the founder of the predominantly black group, was sentenced in April to 135 years in federal prison for molesting 14 boys and girls whose parents were members of his group.</p><p>His attorney said federal prosecutors improperly applied federal racketeering laws and the grand jury was tainted by pretrial publicity.</p><p>A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said York failed to show that the notoriety of his case "substantially influenced" the decision to indict him. The judges also noted that the trial jury was instructed to consider each count of the indictment separately and acquitted York of two of the 13 counts.</p><p>York founded the Nuwaubian group in New York in the late 1960s and moved it to rural Putnam County in 1993. The federal government seized the 476-acre Nuwaubian compound in August 2004 and sold it in June, turning over more than $500,000 to the county.</p><p>About $1 million worth of property and cash were seized in Athens from York also, but had not been liquidated as of last month.</p>