Is he incompetent or isn't he?
Like the indecisive Prince of Denmark, attorneys for religious sect leader and admitted child molester Dwight ''Malachi'' York seem unable to make up their minds.
After delaying the start of his trial on federal child molestation charges by filing a motion requesting a mental competency examination for their client, York's defense attorneys have made an about face and asked U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson to rescind his order granting their request for the exam.
The prosecution last week accused York, a former Athens resident, of employing delay tactics. This week U.S. Attorney Maxwell Wood declined to speculate whether the defense motion filed Wednesday asking for the exam order to be rescinded was more of the same.
''I've never encountered this before, where one attorney asks for a motion and another attorney says 'We don't want him examined,''' Wood said Thursday. ''I just don't know what they are doing because I'm not privy to what their game plan is.''
The motion to rescind the competency exam came two days after Lawson issued his order for the exam on Monday. His order was based on a defense motion claiming York - who believes himself to be chief of a Native American tribe and not answerable to a U.S. court - was unwilling and unable to assist attorneys in his defense.
None of York's growing defense team could be reached for comment Thursday, including Frank Rubino, a Miami attorney who joined the team last week. It was Rubino who filed the motion to rescind the competency exam order.
According to the Macon Telegraph, Rubino said in his motion: ''This attorney spent approximately two hours with Mr. York, and at times Mr. York was coherent, helpful and eager to aid in the preparation of his case. It was clear that Mr. York could appreciate the nature and consequence of the proceedings against him.''
Should Lawson agree to rescind his order for a psychiatric exam, Wood said the trial that had been scheduled to begin Aug. 4 could possibly go forward on schedule.
York, 58, is leader of a religious sect called the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. He was initially accused by federal authorities in May 2002 of molesting more than a dozen minor girls, some young as 11. As part of a plea bargain he pleaded guilty to one count of transporting children across state lines for sexual purposes. That plea bargain was rejected by Lawson during a hearing last month in U.S. District Court in Macon, on the grounds the 15-year prison sentence prosecutors promised to recommend for York was ''too lenient.''
York can now either stand trial with the hope of being acquitted, or try to strike a new plea bargain that Lawson would find acceptable.
In addition to federal charges, York has pleaded guilty in state court to 74 counts of child molestation, one count of child exploitation and two counts of influencing witnesses. Sentencing on those charges is on hold until the federal case is adjudicated, as his state sentence is to run concurrent with any federal sentence that is imposed.
A lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Athens seeks at least $1 billion from the Nuwaubian leader for sexually molesting a girl from the time she was 11 until she was 17. The lawsuit claims the molestations began at a Nuwaubian compound in Eatonton and continued in Athens, where York owned a mansion on Mansfield Drive and a storefront at the corner of West Broad and South Church streets.
The lawsuit is on hold until the federal criminal case is disposed of.