By Carol-lyn Jardine
The defense team for James Warren Flaming Eagle Mooney will have to wait at least two weeks for a 4th District Court judge”s decision on its motion to dismiss its case.
The defense argued Tuesday, August 1, that existing statutes allow non-Native Americans to chew and drink peyote during Native American religious ceremonies.
A federal exemption is incorporated in Utah statutes that allow the otherwise illegal use of peyote in approved Native American churches said Mooney”s attorney, Kathryn Collard.
“All they”re trying to do is exercise their fundamental religious beliefs as members of a Native American church,” she said.
According to DEA records, peyote is a spineless cactus that has been used by natives of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States in religious rites. The principle ingredient is the hallucinogen mescaline. Peyote users chew or dissolve and drink dried pieces of the cactus in religious ceremonies.
An exception for the use of peyote was granted by the DEA for use in religious ceremonies of the Native American Church.
Collard said the Native American Church has more than 1,000 chapters throughout the United States and Canada, and that the chapters can decide their own membership. She said some only allow Native American members, but others allow members of all races.
Mooney”s church, the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church, allows members from all races, Collard said.
The prosecution has argued that only Native Americans are eligible for the exemption but Mooney administered the drug to the predominately white members of his church.
Collard said she argued the statutes support the racial neutrality of the exemption.
Collard said the use of peyote is an issue of religious freedom.
Mooney and his wife Linda are still trying to provide religious services to their congregation which is based in Benjamin, a bedroom community of Spanish Fork, Collard said.
She said the Mooneys have complied with all federal regulations to legally obtain peyote. Those regulations include being a legally recognized church and being known as members of a “bona fide” Native American church.
“They are not the fly-by-night drug dealers the state is trying to portray them as,” she said.
Prosecuting attorney, David Wayment said he couldn”t predict the judge”s decision, but believes this case will end up in an appellate court.
“Who ever wins this, it will not be the last word,” Wayment said.
