PORTLAND, Ore. – A lawsuit filed by Brandon Mayfield, the Muslim lawyer detained for two weeks because of a faulty fingerprint match that linked him to last year's Madrid bombings, has gone to trial with the federal government insisting it had made a "reasonable mistake."
Attorneys for the FBI on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken to dismiss parts of the civil case, in which Mayfield, 38, is suing the government for unspecified damages for violating his civil rights and to have materials seized in the investigation returned or destroyed.
Mayfield, a U.S. citizen who converted to Islam, was held as a material witness for two weeks last year after the FBI mistakenly identified his fingerprint on a bag of detonators found near a Madrid train station. The March 11, 2004, train bombings there killed 191 and wounded more than 1,500.
A test by Spanish police ruled out a match between Mayfield and the fingerprints found in Madrid, and the FBI issued a rare apology to Mayfield after releasing him.
"If it hadn't been for the Spanish National Police, Mr. Mayfield would be in federal prison today facing the death penalty," said Mayfield's lawyer, Gerry Spence, who has represented former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos and white separatist Randy Weaver.
"The FBI has apologized to Mr. Mayfield and his family," said Richard Montague, a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, "This is a case of a reasonable mistake."
The case is being closely watched by civil rights activists because it challenges some of the powers of the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to give the government more leeway in gathering intelligence.
The Patriot Act is up for renewal, and lawmakers are tweaking some of its provisions.
