Brooklyn: Unlicensed Meat Imports Defended (New York Times)

By ELLEN BARRY, New York TimesA lawyer for a Staten Island woman charged with importing meat without proper licenses and mislabeling a shipment argued in Federal District Court yesterday that the charges should be dismissed because they impinge on the importer’s right to freedom of religion. The woman’s lawyer said the meat of African wild game had religious significance for the woman, Mamie Manneh Jefferson, 39, who is originally from Liberia. Federal prosecutors have said Ms. Jefferson catered to the nostalgic rather than religious tastes of African immigrants. Ms. Jefferson was charged after federal agents found primate parts in a shipment of dried fish in January 2006.Read more...