Mooney says office suppressed evidence

PROVO — The founder of a Native American church is calling for an investigation of the Utah County Attorney's Office, saying prosecutors suppressed evidence during a lengthy legal battle that would have authorized church members to possess and distribute peyote.

In letters sent this week to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lund; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; and the U.S. Department of Justice, James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney accuses Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson and deputy prosecutor Dave Wayment of conspiring to "maliciously violate" the rights of the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church.

Bryson responded Tuesday by saying there was "no truth" to Mooney's allegations and that "there was never any evidence suppressed.

"Quite honestly, I don't think it's going to go anywhere," he said of Mooney's request for an investigation. "Mr. Mooney, in my understanding, has already been to the Attorney General's Office with these same complaints and has been told there is nothing inappropriately done here."

Mooney and his wife, Linda, have twice avoided charges for distributing the hallucinogenic cactus to members of the Utah County-based church they founded in 1997. The most recent development happened in February, when federal prosecutors reached a settlement with the couple and dropped felony drug charges.

Mooney contends that none of the charges would have been filed if the Utah County Attorney's Office had not kept evidence about the church's leadership from the Utah Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

David Lee Hamblin, spokesman for the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church, says a report made in 1998 by the Utah County Sheriff's Office authenticated Mooney's church as a legitimate Native American Church, giving it the right to legally possess and distribute peyote.

That report, Hamblin said, was suppressed by the county attorney's office.

"Kay Bryson has been treating Utah law with contempt with regards to this Native American Church for many years," he said. "It's against the law for a prosecutor to suppress evidence."

Bryson said the document in question was a report done by a deputy who had responded to the Mooneys' home on a complaint.

"He's reading more into that report than is there," he said. "There was never any authentication of his church as a Native American Church. There was never any recognition by the sheriff's office of that status."

Mooney conducted a Native American pipe ceremony Monday in front of the Utah County government offices to pray for the attorney's office.

"I was just praying for them because I believe there's going to be some real turbulent winds befalling the Utah County Attorney's Office," he said.