Mayfield v. U.S.
| Decision Date | 26 September 2007 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 04-1427-AA. |
| Citation | 504 F.Supp.2d 1023 |
| Parties | Brandon MAYFIELD, an individual, Mona Mayfield, an individual, and Shane Mayfield, Sharia Mayfield, and Samir Mayfield, individuals, by and through their guardian ad litem Mona Mayfield, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Oregon |
Gerry Spence, The Spence Law Firm LLC, Jackson, WY, Elden M. Rosenthal, Rosenthal & Greene, P.C., Portland, OR, Michele Longo Eder, Michele Longo Eder, LLC, Newport, OR, for plaintiffs.
Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney, Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Elizabeth J. Shapiro, Assistant Director, Renee S. Orleans, Nicholas A. Oldham, Trial Attorneys, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant United States of America.
Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint requests declaratory relief that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA"), as amended by the Patriot Act, is unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs filed this case on October 4, 2004, alleging various" civil rights violations. Specifically, plaintiffs alleged a Bivens1 claim for unlawful arrest and imprisonment and unlawful searches and seizures against four individual defendants. See Complaint, Claims 1-10, ¶¶ 1-74.
Plaintiffs also brought a claim under the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. 552a, alleging the defendants began "leaking" information contained within the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") files to the national and international media regarding plaintiff Brandon Mayfield ("Mayfield") and his arrest. Id., Claim 11, ¶¶ 75-86.
Plaintiffs moved for injunctive and declaratory relief against defendants DOJ and the FBI FISA searches and surveillance. See Pub.L. No. 95-511, 92 Stat. 1790 (Oct. 25, 1978), 50 U.S.C. ¶¶ 1801-1811. Id., Claim 12, ¶¶ 87-90. Claim Twelve included plaintiffs' challenge to the constitutionality of portions of the "Patriot Act" (The United and Strengthening of America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, Pub.L. No. 107-56, 115 Stat. 272 (Oct. 26, 2001)). Id., ¶ 89. Finally, plaintiffs brought a claim for the return of property improperly seized. Id., Claim 13, ¶¶ 91-93.
Subsequently, motions were filed by both parties. The court heard oral argument on motions, and on July 28, 2005, issued an opinion, Mayfield et al. v. Gonzales et al., 2005 WL 1801679 (D.Or. 2005)(doc. 83), ruling, in part, as follows: (1) defendant John T. Massey's motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity, or lack of personal jurisdiction, or in the alternative for summary judgment was denied; (2) defendants Werder's, Green's and Wieners' motion to dismiss or alternative motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, lack of personal jurisdiction, failure to state a claim or alternatively, for summary judgment was denied; and (3) defendants DOJ's and FBI's motion to dismiss counts twelve and thirteen of the. Complaint was denied.
On September 23, 2005, defendants filed an interlocutory appeal of this court's ruling with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, on December 7, 2006, the Court of Appeals granted appellants' motion under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b) for voluntary dismissal of their appeal. In November 2006, the parties informed this court they had reached a stipulated settlement regarding all issues except the one currently before this court. The court signed the stipulated settlement agreement on November 29, 2006.2
On December 6, 2006, plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint for Declaratory Judgment. Pending before this court are the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment and defendant's motion to dismiss based on jurisdiction. The court held oral argument on September 10, 2007. The parties provided the court with written briefs, including supplemental briefs, in addition to comprehensive oral argument. Following careful consideration of all the arguments, plaintiffs' summary judgment motion is granted, and defendant's summary judgment motion and motion to dismiss are denied.
In brief, the facts as alleged by plaintiffs are as follows: On March 11, 2004, in Madrid, Spain, terrorists' bombs exploded on commuter trains, murdering 191 persons, and injuring another 1600 persons, including three United States citizens. Shortly after the bombings, the Spanish National Police ("SNP") recovered fingerprints from a plastic bag containing explosive detonators. The bag was found in a Renault van located near the bombing site.
On March 13, 2004, the SNP submitted digital photographs of the latent fingerprints lifted from the plastic bag to Interpol Madrid, which then transmitted the digital photographs to the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. On that same day, the Latent Print Unit of the FBI initiated an Automated Fingerprint Identification System ("AFIS") search in an attempt to match the latent prints received from Spain with known prints in the FBI computer system. The FBI was unable to locate a fingerprint match.
On March 14, 2004, the FBI requested and received from Spain higher resolution digital photographs of the eight latent prints and on March 15, 2004, another AFIS search was performed. The FBI technicians programmed the computer to return 20 candidates whose known prints had features in common with what was identified as Latent Finger Print # 17 ("LFP # 17"). On March 15, 2004, the computer produced 20 candidates that met the criteria. Each candidate was identified by an AFIS "score," a number that reflected a rank as to how closely the AFIS computer determined each candidate's fingerprint matched certain features of LFP # 17. Also included was an identification number for each candidate that allowed the FBI to retrieve the names, original fingerprint cards, and demographic information of each candidate on the list. Demographic information included name, date of birth, sex, race, and social security number. This information allowed the FBI to perform background checks on each of the 20 candidates.
Mayfield's AFIS "score" ranked # 4 on the list of 20 candidates. Mayfield is an American citizen born in Oregon and reared in Kansas. He lives with his wife and three children in Aloha, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. Mayfield is 38 years old, a former Army officer with an honorable discharge, and a practicing Oregon lawyer. Prior to his arrest, he had not traveled outside the United States since 1994, and he had never been arrested for a crime. Plaintiffs allege that FBI examiners were aware of Mayfield's Muslim faith and that this knowledge influenced their examination of Mayfield's fingerprints.
On March 17, 2004, a "Supervisory Fingerprint Specialist" for the FBI, Agent Green, concluded that Mayfield's left index fingerprint matched LFP # 17. Plaintiffs allege that had Green properly performed the fingerprint identification analysis, he would have been compelled to declare that Mayfield's print did not, in fact, match LFP # 17. Plaintiffs allege that Green, however, was improperly influenced by Mayfield's adherence to the Muslim faith.
Green then submitted the print to Massey, an allegedly "independent fingerprint examiner," for verification. Massey is a former FBI employee, now retired, periodically hired by the FBI on a contract basis to "perform forensic examination of latent fingerprints." Plaintiffs allege that when Massey was employed by the FBI, he was reprimanded on at least three occasions for erroneously "identifying" fingerprints. Plaintiffs contend that Massey was selected to "verify" the identification because his "employment history of discipline for poor performance would strongly motivate him to agree and verify the prior identification." Plaintiffs believe that Massey was informed of Green's prior identification of LFP # 17 to Mayfield, and that Mayfield was a practicing Muslim. Massey, did, in fact, verify that Mayfield's left index fingerprint matched LFP # 17.
The alleged "match" was then submitted to a senior FBI manager, Wieners, for verification. It is FBI policy that when there are less than 12 points of similarity between a latent print and a known print, a senior manager must review the alleged match. Plaintiffs allege that Wieners knew, prior to examining the print, that two examiners before him had identified and verified the purported match, and that Mayfield is Muslim. Wieners also verified that LFP # 17 matched Mayfield's print.
On March 20, 2004, the FBI issued a formal report matching Mayfield's print to LFP # 17. On March 21, 2004, FBI surveillance agents began to watch Mayfield and to follow Mayfield and members of his family when they traveled to and from the Bilal Mosque, the family's place of worship; to and from Mayfield's law office, his place of employment; to and from the children's school; and to and from family activities.
Plaintiffs allege that at some point after the wrongful fingerprint identification, the FBI applied to the Foreign Intelligence Security Court ("FISC") for an order authorizing the FBI to place electronic listening devices ("bugs") in the "shared and intimate" rooms of the Mayfield family home; executed repeated "sneak and peek" searches of the Mayfield family home, occurring when the family was away from the home and performed "so incompetently that the FBI left traces of their searches behind, causing the Mayfield family to be frightened and believe that they had been burglarized;" obtained private and protected information about the Mayfields from third parties; executed "sneak and peek" searches of the law office of Brandon Mayfield; and placed wiretaps on Mayfield's office and home phones. The application for the FISA order before the FISC was personally approved by the U.S. Attorney General at the time, John...
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