JUDGE RETURNS PEYOTE TO AMERICAN INDIANS.Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer A judge ordered the release Tuesday of more than 250 pounds of peyote peyote (pāō`tē), spineless cactus (Lophophora williamsii), ingested by indigenous people in Mexico and the United States to produce visions. Ventura County sheriff's deputies seized from a pair of American Indians last month, ending a weeklong confrontation. Judge Steven Hintz ruled that the county district attorney must turn over the cactus - along with an abalone abalone (ăbəlō`nē), popular name in the United States for a univalve gastropod mollusk of the genus Haliotis, members of which are also called ear shells, or sea ears, as their shape resembles the human ear. shell, an eagle's feather, a pipe and other ceremonial tools - to Paul Skyhorse Durant, an American Indian who was pulled over for a traffic stop Nov. 22. Sheriff's officials refused to release the 10,000 buds of hallucinogenic hal·lu·ci·no·gen n. A substance that induces hallucination. [hallucin(ation) + -gen.] hal·lu cactus pending a criminal investigation. Federal law classifies peyote as a drug on the same level of heroin or opium, but protects its use by members of the Native American Church Native American Church, Native American religious group whose beliefs blend fundamentalist Christian elements with pan–Native American moral principles. . Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Michael Schwartz said the authorities' refusal to release the material was a clear violation of religious freedom. ``They didn't need anything but to prove they were American Indians and that they were using it for ceremonial purposes,'' Schwartz said. ``Once they did that, the district attorney had no authority to hold it.'' The judge's order to release the material ends a dramatic weeklong confrontation between authorities and Durant, a member of the Ojibwa Nation, and Buzz Berry, a member of the Siletz Nation. Berry was a passenger in Durant's van at the time of the seizure. The two led supporters in a drum circle drum circle, n a spiritual, communal, or therapeutic music experience in which participants join together in a circle with drums, move, dance using various percussion instruments, voices, and other devices. in the courthouse courtyard all week and spoke out for their religious rights both inside and outside the courtroom. Deputy District Attorney Bill Redmond contended that the two had obtained the peyote in Texas using falsified documents and that investigators needed more time to determine the identity of the rightful owner. Leaders of the Native American Church deny granting authorization to Durant, Redmond said. ``How can we give it back to someone who shouldn't have it?'' he said. But American Indian experts who testified Tuesday said church leaders' disavowal dis·a·vow tr.v. dis·a·vowed, dis·a·vow·ing, dis·a·vows To disclaim knowledge of, responsibility for, or association with. of the transaction didn't make it illegal. Peter Garcia, president of the Southwest Learning Center in Silver City, N.M., said the Native American Church is too informal an organization to monitor all peyote transactions. ``The church leaders want it to be centralized, but it's not,'' he said. ``They have no membership rolls.'' |
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