Mooneys deny guilt in peyote case

A day after their arrest on several federal counts of peyote distribution, a Utah County couple made their first appearance Friday in U.S. District Court.

Dressed in jail clothes and in chains, James "Flaming Eagle" and Linda Mooney were led before Magistrate Judge Samuel Alba.

The couple was advised they face 19 counts, each of which carries a 20-year prison term and $1 million fine. When asked for their response, James and Linda Mooney pleaded innocent to the charges.

The Mooneys then stated they did not have the funds to hire their own attorney. In his application for a federal public defender, James Mooney noted that he had not been employed since 1977. "I'm a medicine man," Mooney told the court.

Alba granted their requests and appointed each a public defender.

The indictment, which was handed up by a grand jury June 15, was unsealed Thursday, the day of the arrest.

The Mooneys are the leaders of the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church of Utah in Benjamin, where they openly admit to administering peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, to their followers as part of their rituals. Fellow church member Nicholas Stark of Ogden has also been charged but was not arrested.

James Mooney has maintained that his church's use of peyote is protected under the First Amendment right of freedom of religious belief.

The indictment unsealed Thursday came after a four-year legal battle with state officials over peyote use. Last summer, the Utah Supreme Court ultimately sided with Mooney, finding that members of the Native American Church could use peyote for religious purposes regardless of their race.

However, because peyote is a federally regulated controlled substance, Congress granted narrow provisions as to who can use it, said U.S. District Attorney criminal division chief Richard Lambert. Lambert said only members of the Native American Church who are members of a federally recognized tribe can use peyote strictly for religious practice.

Outside court Friday, Lambert questioned Mooney's claimed heritage. Mooney claims says he is a member of the Oklevueha Band of Yamassee Seminole Indians, a tribe based in Florida. The tribe is not federally recognized, prosecutors say.

"He's not a Native American; he's not a member of a federally recognized tribe," Lambert said of Mooney.

Mooney's supporters said outside of court that they suspect that the federal charges came because state authorities failed in their attempt to convict Mooney and his wife.