Accused of smuggling exotic meats, Liberian asserts religious freedom

By FRANK DONNELLY ADVANCE STAFF WRITER March 28, 2007

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In a clash of cultures playing out in Brooklyn federal court, a Staten Island woman claims she has the right to eat monkey parts in keeping with her religious beliefs.

That's hooey, counter prosecutors, who contend that Mamie Manneh Jefferson, of the West Brighton section, illegally imported pieces of protected wildlife that carry the risk of "numerous" infectious diseases.

In addition, the Liberian native failed to show that eating the meat shipped from Guinea "arises from a sincere religious belief," they argue.

In a brief filed Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan E. Green asked a judge to reject Ms. Jefferson's motion to dismiss smuggling charges against her.

District Judge Raymond J. Dearie could rule on the motions after hearings in mid-April.

If ultimately convicted on the federal charge, the 39-year-old defendant, also known as Mamie Manneh, could face up to five years in a federal penitentiary, a fine, or a combination of the two.

She is currently serving a two-year state prison sentence in an unrelated case for running over her husband's girl friend in the parking lot of a Mariners Harbor movie theater in February 2006. The victim survived.

Ms. Jefferson's legal troubles began on Jan. 12, 2006.

Federal agents at JFK International Airport allegedly discovered 65 pieces of illegal smoked bushmeat -- including monkey skulls, limbs and torsos, along with antelope parts -- buried beneath smoked fish in a shipment to Ms. Jefferson from Guinea, a West African country. The primate parts comprised green monkey and hamadryas baboon -- animals protected by law, prosecutors said.

Agents later found 33 pieces of dried, smoked bushmeat in the garage of Ms. Jefferson's Bement Avenue home. According to court papers, she said they were a "gift from God" sent from someone in Minnesota.

Ms. Jefferson, who had been rearing 11 children, told the Advance last May that she began selling African attire, smoked fish and dried fish to fellow Africans as a sideline out of her garage in October 2005. There is a strong demand for the products from members of the Island's Liberian community, she said, and after running out of goods, she requested additional supplies from Africa.

She contended she was shocked when the shipment arrived and included primate parts. Prosecutors said she runs a business called Celess Market Service.

In moving last month to dismiss the federal case, Ms. Jefferson's lawyer, Jan A. Rostal, said the prosecution -- apparently the first of its kind regarding African bushmeat -- violated her client's right to "religious free exercise." She branded it as "overkill."

Ms. Jefferson is a member of a church that blends Christianity with African Traditional Religion. As part of their religious practices, they eat boiled, blessed bushmeat on Christmas and Easter and at "ritualistic events" such as weddings and baptisms, believing it brings them "closer to God."

"This is the way a lot of Africans think," Ms. Rostal said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Green countered in court papers that Ms. Jefferson's likening of bushmeat to Easter ham or Thanksgiving turkey put it in the realm of "cultural and traditional norms." Although fellow church members submitted affidavits attesting to bushmeat consumption, none described eating green monkeys or hamadryas baboons as a "sacred tradition or part of a religious exercise," he said.

Even if she proved the latter point, prosecutors allege that Ms. Jefferson circumvented the law by failing to get the necessary permits and declare her importation of parts from wildlife protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). However, none of the species the defendant is accused of smuggling are on the Endangered Species List.

Green also contended that primate parts carry the risk of "numerous" infectious diseases, including HIV, influenza, SARS, Ebola and monkeypox.

Authorities, however, have said there is no indication Ms. Jefferson's shipment posed a health risk.

Frank Donnelly is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at fdonnelly@siadvance.com.