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Posted on 04/28/2005 7:50:48 AM PDT by SmithL
SALT LAKE CITY - The leader of an American Indian church is suing county officials who unsuccessfully prosecuted him for using peyote during religious ceremonies.
James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney, in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, accuses officials in Utah County of civil rights violations, including unlawfully searching his property in October 2000 and confiscating thousands of peyote buttons.
Mooney, who is part American Indian, also claims the county officials have refused to return the items even though he was vindicated by a state Supreme Court ruling last June that found that non-American Indian members of the Native American Church can use peyote in religious ceremonies.
He was giving the peyote to members of his Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church who were not members of any American Indian tribe.
"It's put a chilling effect on peoples' right to assemble and practice religion," said Mooney's attorney, Randall Marshall. "This is ultimately about religious freedom."
The lawsuit seeks the return of the peyote, which has hallucinogenic properties, and other items taken from the church as well as unspecified monetary damages and attorney's fees, Marshall said.
An attorney for the county officials said the same claims made in Wednesday's filing were dismissed in a federal lawsuit filed in 2000.
Peter Stirba said the lawsuit was dismissed because the case against Mooney was still pending, but that the allegations had been deemed unfounded.
"In terms of civil rights claims, there has already been findings made that there was nothing untoward by the county attorney's office," he said.
Mooney claims officers confiscated about 18,000 peyote buttons in the October 2000 raid on his six-acre complex in Benjamin, although officials say it was only 12,000. Peyote is being sold for about $350 per 1,000 buttons but the price fluctuates, Mooney said.
This is about a cactus???
Cacti are real hard to light.
From cacti to mushrooms to ditchweed, the gooberment is grasping the nettle of vegetative hegemony!
Oh, brave new world.....
Utah officials: don't they have anything better to do?
It's a matter of control. If they let this person get away with worshiping in a manner that makes them uncomfortable, pretty soon other people might want to exercise their rights in an unapproved manner. Then there would be anarchy, people exercising their rights willy-nilly without the blessing of government. Can't have that, what if after all that rights exercising people stopped and realized that they didn't need their local government stooge quite as much? Unemployment for bureaucrats is what! Pudgy former civil servants, not properly weaned from the government teat, unsuited to any productive work, wandering the streets like an army of zombies, jonesing for the sweet elixir of power.
Better that some fringe wacko religious wierdo give up his rights than disenfranchisement of public sector employees.
Or it could be the fact the Peyote is a narcotic.
Don't you hate the sound of deflating conspiracies.
Better check your facts, Peyote isn't a narcotic.
It's a Schedule 1 substance with defined exemptions for religious use, both at the Federal and State level.
I hope this guy wins a bunch of dough.
I wonder how many Freepers would get their undies in a bunch if this guy was a Catholic Priest, and the local Sheriff arrested him for bootlegging and serving liquor without a license for dispensing communion wine?
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Hmmm it looks lik e some cops in utah are goingo to be getting some new furniture and electronics in the next few days remeber always buy your drugs from a cop they got the best s**t around.
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