SALT LAKE CITY - A Utah man offering peyote at religious ceremonies may be immune from state prosecution, but federal authorities warn they may step in to file charges.

Richard Lambert, chief of the U.S. attorney's criminal division for Utah, told James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney and his wife, Linda, they could be liable under federal drug laws if they continued using or offering peyote to others.

"Although the Utah Supreme Court has recently ruled that you may sell or otherwise distribute peyote under state law, that ruling does not control or bind the federal government," Lambert said in an Aug. 20 letter to the couple.

Lambert said his office is "reviewing your conduct for consideration of seeking federal charges."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on how close federal officials were to making good on the threat.

The Utah Supreme Court OK'd religious peyote use in June for any member of the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church. As a result, state drug charges were dropped against Mooney, who calls himself a medicine man and part American Indian.

But federal prosecutors may challenge James Mooney's assertion that he is one-quarter Seminole.

"I think this is mean-spirited and in complete disrespect of the Utah Supreme Court decision," said civil rights attorney Kathryn Collard, who represents the Mooneys and their church. "This is not an area where federal law pre-empts state law. This is more harassment and persecution of these people, and it ought to stop."

The state case was launched with a raid that seized 12,000 peyote buttons in 2000 from the Mooneys, who worship peyote as a sacrament.

Mooney said church members had been making preparations to take peyote again when the federal warning arrived.

"They want to put me and my wife in prison for the rest of our lives for what, helping people?" the 60-year-old Mooney said Friday.

The Utah Supreme Court ruled religious use of peyote is legal for church members regardless of their race, but federal authorities may try to counter by using language from federal law that defines an Indian as a person who belongs to a federally recognized tribe.

Mooney, who belongs to no tribe, said that argument has been rejected by federal appellate courts.

Mooney founded the Oklevueha Earth Walks Native American Church in Benjamin, a rural community west of Spanish Fork, in 1997. The Native American Church operates throughout the United States and Canada, and each chapter operates autonomously and sets its own rules.