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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah prosecutors have dropped felony charges against a Clearfield man whose backyard shed held a shrine of human skulls and animal bones.
Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings says an investigation found that 53-year-old Roberto Casillas-Corrales was legitimately using the skulls in the practice of his Santeria faith.
A priest in his church, Casillas-Corralles believed the rituals would heal a sick relative.
- The worship of the Orisha (literally "head guardian") and other beliefs of the Ifa religion, practiced in Southern Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea Coast
- Elements of worship from Roman Catholicism
The shrine was discovered when police served a warrant on the home as part of a drug investigation.
Prosecutors had charged Casillas-Corralles with two counts of third-degree felony abuse or desecration of a dead human body.
But Rawlings says his office scuttled the case because it is important to protect Casillas-Corrales' constitutional right to free religious expression.
Casillas-Corralles was jailed upon his arrest in March, but was released Tuesday.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
