The Daily Herald

PROVO — A Provo man who belongs to a church that uses peyote in its religious practice has been bound over to face trial on felony drug possession charges. He pleaded not guilty.

David Lee Hamblin’s chief accuser at Friday’s preliminary hearing in 4th District Court was his daughter, who testified she found her father’s peyote in their Provo home and told police on June 13, 1999.

The daughter was 16 at the time.

The only other witness deputy county prosecutor Dave Wayment put on was Provo Police officer Kevin Turner.

“It was painful,” Hamblin said of having his daughter testify against him. “But I have no ill feelings toward her.”

Hamblin, a psychologist who earned his doctorate from Arizona State University, now faces 15 years in prison if convicted for second-degree felony possession of one button of the peyote cactus.

Considered a mild hallucinogen, the peyote bud, found on particular cacti and used in some American Indians’ religious culture, predates Columbus.

Hamblin, who is not an Indian, is a member and leader who was studying to be a medicine man for the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church of Utah, which is based in Benjamin.

Prosecutors have also charged the church and its top leader, James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney, and his wife Linda, with 10 first-degree felony charges of possessing as much as 30 pounds of peyote with the intent to distribute the drug.

The Mooneys face life in prison if convicted.

But Deven Coggins, Hamblin’s attorney, said the prosecution is wrong to charge members of American Indian churches for religious peyote use.

Indian and non-Indian members have a right to use peyote for religious rites that are protected by the U.S. Constitution, he said.

But Wayment contends only American Indian members benefit from a federal exception that allows religious uses of peyote.

Coggins said he intends to file the same legal motion to dismiss all charges based on constitutional issues that Kathryn Collard, his co-council, filed in the Mooney matter May 17.

Fourth District Court records state Hamblin was seeking to make a modest living from being a “medicine person” after losing his license to practice psychology in Utah in October 1999.

“Dr. Hamblin’s license to practice was revoked for having intimate relations with several patients during clinical therapeutic sessions, and claiming it was therapeutic,” said Lauri Arensmeys, operational manager for the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.

Pat Christian can be reached at 344-2556 or at pchristi@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A2.

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