Brandon Mayfield

Last updated

Brandon Mayfield (born July 15, 1966) is a Muslim-American convert in Washington County, Oregon, who was wrongfully detained in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings on the basis of a faulty fingerprint match. On May 6, 2004, the FBI arrested Mayfield as a material witness in connection with the Madrid attacks, and held him for two weeks, before releasing him with a public apology following Spanish authorities identifying another suspect. [1] A United States DOJ internal review later acknowledged serious errors in the FBI investigation. Ensuing lawsuits resulted in a $2 million settlement. An initial ruling declared some provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional, but the United States government appealed, and the ruling was overturned at the Ninth Circuit level on technical standing grounds.

Contents

Mayfield's case has been referenced in numerous scientific, political, and social journals. [2]

Early life and career

Brandon Mayfield was born in Coos Bay, Oregon, and grew up in Halstead, Kansas. He served in the United States Army Reserve from 1985 to 1989, and then as an officer in the Army in Bitburg, Germany, from 1992 to 1994. He met his wife Mona, an Egyptian national and the daughter of a college professor, on a blind date in Olympia, Washington, in 1986, and converted to Islam shortly afterwards. They have lived in Beaverton, Oregon, off and on since 1989. [2] Although he was a regular worshiper at a Beaverton mosque prior to his arrest, some of his colleagues were unaware of his religious beliefs. The imam of the mosque has described Mayfield as "very patriotic." The Mayfields have four children. [2]

He studied law at Washburn University and Lewis & Clark College, receiving his Juris Doctor degree from Washburn University School of Law in 1999, and practicing family law in Newport before moving to the Portland area. Mayfield performed work for the Modest Means Program of the Oregon State Bar, which matches attorneys who are willing to work at reduced rates for low-income clients. In 2003, he offered child custody legal aid to Jeffrey Leon Battle, one of the Portland Seven, a group of people convicted of trying to travel to Afghanistan to help the Taliban.

False accusation in 2004 bombing

Arrest and detention

Following the 2004 Madrid train bombings, fingerprints on a bag containing detonating devices were found by Spanish authorities. The Spanish National Police shared the fingerprints with the FBI through Interpol. Twenty possible matches for one of the fingerprints were found in the FBI database and one of the possible matches was Brandon Mayfield. His prints were in the FBI database as they were taken as part of standard procedure when he joined the military. He became the prime suspect because of his conversion to Islam and because he had represented one of the Portland Seven, despite those being first-amendment protected activities. [1]

The FBI concluded that the fingerprints were a "100 percent match" on March 20, 2004. [3] According to the court documents in the Honorable Judge Ann Aiken's decision, this information was largely "fabricated and concocted by the FBI and DOJ." [4] The FBI finally sent Mayfield's fingerprints to the Spanish authorities on April 2nd, but in an April 13th memo, the Spanish authorities contested the matching of the fingerprints from Brandon Mayfield to the ones associated with the Madrid bombing. [5] Further, the Spanish authorities informed the FBI they had other suspects in the case, Moroccan immigrants not linked to anyone in the US. The FBI continued surveillance of Mayfield and his family despite the information received from the Spanish authorities, and misrepresented to a secret FISA court that the Spanish authorities had simply ruled Mayfield's match "inconclusive" when in fact they had deemed it "negative."

Mayfield was concerned for the safety of his children and wife, and according to his father, he suspected that he was under surveillance by the federal authorities. In the weeks before his arrest, Mayfield's family was under the impression that their house had been broken into at least twice, although nothing was stolen. [1] According to court documents, the FBI used national security letters in order to wiretap his phones, bug his house, and search his house several times, including collective personal hygiene products to test for DNA. [6]

As was discovered during the court case, the FBI's records show that this fingerprint, despite the sworn testimony of FBI and DOJ agents, was in all reality not an exact match but only one of 20 prints "similar" to the ones retrieved from Madrid. Based on that list of people with "similar prints" the FBI launched an extensive investigation of all 20 individuals using letters of national security. The investigation included medical records, financial records, employment records, etc. on all 20 people and their families. It was during this investigation that Brandon Mayfield's name rose to the top of the list.

On May 6th, the FBI arrested Mayfield at his office in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland. [7] The arrest was similar to the contemporary Mike Hawash case, under a material witness warrant rather than under charge; he was held with no access to family and limited access, if any, to legal counsel. The FBI initially refused to inform either Mayfield or his family why he was being detained or where he was being held. His family found out the extent of the allegations by watching the news, learning that someone had leaked the nature of the FBI investigation to the Associated Press, precipitating the rushed arrest.

He was at first held at a Multnomah County jail under a false name; he was later transferred to an unidentified location. His family protested that Mayfield had no connection with the bombings, his passport was expired, he was at home on the day of the attack, and had not been off the continent in over 11 to 14 years.

Release

Before his arrest, Spanish authorities informed the FBI in a letter dated April 13, 2004, that they reviewed the fingerprint on the bag as a negative match of Mayfield's fingerprint, [8] though this letter was not communicated to Mayfield's attorneys. On May 19 the Spanish authorities announced that the fingerprints actually belonged to an Algerian national, Ouhnane Daoud; Brandon Mayfield was released from prison when the international press broke the story the next day—May 20, 2004. [6] A gag order remained in force for the next few days. By May 25, the case was dismissed by the judge.

The FBI conducted an internal review of Mayfield's arrest and detention, concluding that although he was not arrested solely due to his religious beliefs, they may have contributed to investigator's failure to take into account the Spanish concerns over fingerprint identification. [9] The FBI issued a press release announcing the report's conclusion that they had not misused the USA PATRIOT Act in the investigation. [10] Civil libertarians and the ACLU nonetheless consider Mayfield's detention a misuse of the material witness statute. [11]

The FBI later admitted wrongdoing and apologized for their acts. In response, on October 4, 2004 Mayfield filed a lawsuit over this invasion of his privacy. [12] He sought an injunction to force the government to return or destroy copies of items seized from his home [13] and challenged the law which was used against him as unconstitutional. [14] The Federal Government filed several motions to have Mayfield's case dismissed as a matter of national security, or national secrets, but these were denied on July 28, 2005 by Judge Ann Aiken. [15]

Court's ruling and aftermath

The case was heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Among the issues on appeal was whether materials removed from Mayfield's house, including DNA samples taken from his family's personal toothbrushes, were to be destroyed or preserved. The Federal Government assumed the position that materials must be preserved so that they can be referred to, if more lawsuits are brought in the future.

On November 29, 2006, the U.S. government settled part of the lawsuit with Mayfield for a reported $2 million. The government issued a formal apology to Mayfield as part of the settlement. The settlement allowed Mayfield to pursue a legal challenge against the Patriot Act. [16] The FBI was also cleared of wrongdoing in an earlier internal investigation.

On September 26, 2007, two provisions of the Patriot Act were declared unconstitutional by the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. [17] Finding in Mayfield's favor, Judge Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment," which violates the Constitution of the United States. [18] The Federal government appealed that ruling, and Mayfield's attorney, Elden Rosenthal, argued in front of the Ninth Circuit court on February 5, 2009. [2] The ruling was overturned in December 2009 on the ground that the Court found the plaintiff, Mayfield, not to have standing. [19] Mayfield appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, but was denied certiorari on November 1, 2010. [20]

Subsequent work

Between 2015 and 2017, Mayfield participated in a campaign with CAIR, the ACLU, and the National Lawyers Guild to press for the Portland City Council to sever ties with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, citing surveillance and immigration issues. [21] [22]

In 2018 Brandon Mayfield represented Yonas Fikre before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, successfully persuading the court that damages done to the man by his placement on the No Fly List and interference with his attempts to return to the United States gave him standing to challenge the unconstitutionality of the policy. [23] [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot Act</span> 2001 United States anti-terrorism law

The USA PATRIOT Act was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, and the commonly used short name is a contrived acronym that is embedded in the name set forth in the statute.

Automated fingerprint identification is the process of using a computer to match fingerprints against a database of known and unknown prints in the fingerprint identification system. Automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) are primarily used by law enforcement agencies for criminal identification purposes, the most important of which is the identification of a person suspected of committing a crime or linking a suspect to other unsolved crimes.

Iyman Faris is a Pakistani citizen who served for months as a double agent for the FBI before pleading guilty in May 2003 of providing material support to Al Qaeda. A United States citizen since 1999, he had worked as a truck driver and lived in Columbus, Ohio. As of September 2003, Faris was the "only confessed al Qaeda sleeper caught on U.S. soil." In 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda. In February 2020 an American federal court revoked Faris' US citizenship. In August 2020, he was released from a federal prison in Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review</span> United States Article III court

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) is a U.S. federal court whose sole purpose is to review denials of applications for electronic surveillance warrants by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The FISCR was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and consists of a panel of three judges. Like the FISC, the FISCR is not an adversarial court; rather, the only party to the court is the federal government, although other parties may submit briefs as amici curiae if they are made aware of the proceedings. Papers are filed and proceedings are held in secret. Records of the proceedings are kept classified, though copies of the proceedings with sensitive information redacted are very occasionally made public. The government may appeal decisions of the FISCR to the Supreme Court of the United States, which hears appeals on a discretionary basis.

Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash is a Palestinian-born American engineer who was convicted and sentenced to a seven-year prison sentence in 2003 for conspiring to aid the Taliban in fighting against U.S. forces and their allies in Afghanistan. Six weeks after 9/11, Hawash secretly traveled to China with a group of Portland-area Muslims, dubbed the Portland Seven, with the intent of entering Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. Hawash and his fellow conspirators were unable to reach Afghanistan due to visa problems, according to federal authorities,

The USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the United States Congress in 2001 as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It has ten titles, each containing numerous sections. Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures granted increased powers of surveillance to various government agencies and bodies. This title has 25 sections, with one of the sections containing a sunset clause which sets an expiration date, December 31, 2005, for most of the title's provisions. This was extended twice: on December 22, 2005 the sunset clause expiration date was extended to February 3, 2006 and on February 2 of the same year it was again extended, this time to March 10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Controversial invocations of the Patriot Act</span>

The following are controversial invocations of the USA PATRIOT Act. The stated purpose of the Act is to "deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes." One criticism of the Act is that "other purposes" often includes the detection and prosecution of non-terrorist alleged future crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National security letter</span> US government administrative subpoena

A national security letter (NSL) is an administrative subpoena issued by the United States government to gather information for national security purposes. NSLs do not require prior approval from a judge. The Stored Communications Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and Right to Financial Privacy Act authorize the United States government to seek such information that is "relevant" to authorized national security investigations. By law, NSLs can request only non-content information, for example, transactional records and phone numbers dialed, but never the content of telephone calls or e-mails.

Operation Backfire is a multi-agency criminal investigation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), into destructive acts in the name of animal rights and environmental causes in the United States described as eco-terrorism by the FBI. The operation resulted in convictions and imprisonment of a number of people, many of whom were members of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.

Warrantless searches are searches and seizures conducted without court-issued search warrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Aiken</span> American judge

Ann Louise Aiken is an American attorney and jurist in the state of Oregon. A native Oregonian, she has served as a state court judge of the Oregon circuit courts and worked in private legal practice. She is currently a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. She served as Chief Judge of the Court from February 1, 2009 to January 31, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Derek Brown</span> American fugitive

Jason Derek Brown is an American fugitive wanted for first degree murder and armed robbery in Phoenix, Arizona. On November 29, 2004, Brown allegedly shot and killed an armored car guard outside a movie theater and then fled with the money. On December 8, 2007, he was named by the FBI as the 489th fugitive to be placed on its Ten Most Wanted list. He is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous. On September 7, 2022, he was removed from the Ten Most Wanted list without being captured, but he is still wanted. He was replaced on the list by Michael James Pratt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Patriot Act</span>

The history of the USA PATRIOT Act involved many parties who opposed and supported the legislation, which was proposed, enacted and signed into law 45 days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The USA PATRIOT Act, though approved by large majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative, was controversial, and parts of the law were invalidated or modified by successful legal challenges over constitutional infringements to civil liberties. The Act had several sunset provisions, most reauthorized by the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act. Both reauthorizations incorporated amendments to the original USA PATRIOT Act, and other federal laws.

Thomas Tamm is a public defender in Washington County, Maryland. He formerly worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) Office of Intelligence Policy and Review during 2004 when senior Justice officials responded to the warrantless NSA surveillance concerning eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. He was an anonymous whistleblower to The New York Times, making the initial disclosures which led to reporters winning Pulitzer Prizes in 2006. Although Maryland agreed to drop ethics charges against him in 2009 relating to those disclosures, and the USDOJ announced it had dropped its investigation in 2011, the D.C. Office of Bar Counsel announced in January 2016 that it had brought disciplinary charges against Tamm relating to those events. Despite some controversy with respect to politicisation of that office and similar charges being brought to silence attorney whistleblowers especially beginning in 2014, Tamm in March 2016 agreed to public censure by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in order to allow him to proceed with his life and career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Robideau</span>

Robert Eugene Robideau was an American activist who was acquitted in the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents in South Dakota.

A list of suspects and convictions related to the 2004 Madrid Train Bombings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliven Bundy</span> American cattle rancher

Cliven D. Bundy is an American cattle rancher who was charged and underwent pre-trial detention for his role in the 2014 Bundy standoff. Bundy vocally advocated a philosophy opposed to what he views as federal government overreach. He is the father of Ammon Bundy, who in 2016 also led another armed standoff against the government, the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven T. Wax</span> American lawyer

Steven T. Wax was a U.S. federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon in Portland, Oregon. Wax resigned from his position after 31 years and now works with the Oregon Innocence Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge</span> Armed occupation of a US federal protected area in Oregon in 2016

On January 2, 2016, an armed group of far-right extremists seized and occupied the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, and continued to occupy it until law enforcement made a final arrest on February 11, 2016. Their leader was Ammon Bundy, who participated in the 2014 Bundy standoff at his father's Nevada ranch. Other members of the group were loosely affiliated with non-governmental militias and the sovereign citizen movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaVoy Finicum</span> For a brief time, American militia group spokesman (1961–2016)

Robert LaVoy Finicum was one of the American militants who staged an armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January 2016. After it began, the occupying force organized itself as the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, of which Finicum was a spokesman. He was the only fatality of the occupation.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Matthew Harwood (February 8, 2014). "The terrifying surveillance case of Brandon Mayfield". Al Jazeera America . Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Holley, David (March 26, 2009). "Lawyer unjustly jailed working toward "normal"". Portland Tribune.
  3. ↑ Kershaw, Sarah; Lichtblau, Eric; Fuchs, Dale; Bergman, Lowell (June 5, 2004). "Spain and U.S. at Odds on Mistaken Terror Arrest". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  4. ↑ Jazayerli, Rany (November 16, 2012). "Essay: How the Republican Party alienated the once reliable Muslim voting bloc". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  5. ↑ Kershaw, Sarah; Lichtblau, Eric; Fuchs, Dale; Bergman, Lowell (June 5, 2004). "Spain and U.S. at Odds on Mistaken Terror Arrest". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  6. 1 2 Mayfield v. Ashcroft, No.6:04-cv-01427 ( D. Or. Sept. 26, 2007).
  7. ↑ Kershaw, Sarah; Lichtblau, Eric; Fuchs, Dale; Bergman, Lowell (June 5, 2004). "Spain and U.S. at Odds on Mistaken Terror Arrest". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  8. ↑ Wax, Steven T. (2008). Kafka comes to America. Other Press. pp.  154. ISBN   978-1-59051-295-1.
  9. ↑ USDOJ Report
  10. ↑ Fingerprint misidentification of Brandon Mayfield – Federal Bureau of Investigation Archived April 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ Administration Abuses Material Witness Law – TalkLeft.com
  12. ↑ Mayfield v. Gonzalez,2005U.S. Dist. LEXIS45684, *2(D. Or.July 28, 2005).
  13. ↑ Mayfield v. Gonzalez,2005U.S. Dist. LEXIS45684, *44(D. Or.July 28, 2005).
  14. ↑ Mayfield v. Gonzalez,2005U.S. Dist. LEXIS45684, *3(D. Or.July 28, 2005).
  15. ↑ Mayfield v. Gonzalez,2005U.S. Dist. LEXIS45684, *55(D. Or.July 28, 2005).
  16. ↑ Wrongly accused man settles bomb suit – news.yahoo.com
  17. ↑ Mayfield v. Gonzalez,504F. Supp. 2d1023, 1042-43(D. Or.September 26, 2007).
  18. ↑ McCall, William (September 26, 2007). "2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful". ABC News . AP. Retrieved September 26, 2007.[ dead link ]
  19. ↑ "Mayfield v. US, No. 07-35865". FindLaw . December 11, 2009.
  20. ↑ Mayfield v. United States,562U.S.1002(November 1, 2010).
  21. ↑ "In or out? Portland debates return to anti-terror task force". Washington Times. February 6, 2015.
  22. ↑ Dirk VanderHart (November 8, 2018). "There's a New Call for Portland to Sever Ties With a Federal Terrorism Task Force". Portland Mercury.
  23. ↑ Maxine Bernstein (September 20, 2018). "Federal appeals court revives challenge of no-fly list". Oregon Live.
  24. ↑ Maxine Bernstein (May 10, 2018). "Federal appeals court hears Portlander's challenge of no-fly list". Oregon Live.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.