Justice Department Makes a $2 Million Blunder for Wrongful Arrest
The U.S. Justice Department will pay $2 million to an Oregon lawyer who was wrongly accused of being involved in the 2004 train bombings in Spain. According to an FBI affidavit, his fingerprints were on a plastic bag containing detonators found in the bombers' van. Wrong!
The FBI's fingerprint identification was wrong, however, and Brandon Mayfield was released several days later. He had been accused of involvement with the bombings of four commuter trains March 11, 2004, killing 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.
Mayfield charged he was a victim of profiling because the Portland-area attorney was a Muslim convert.
He and his family later sued the U.S. government for damages.
"I, myself, have dark memories of stifling paranoia, of being monitored, followed, watched, tracked," Mayfield said, choking back emotion. "I've been surveilled, followed, targeted primarily because I've been an outspoken critic of this administration and doing my job to defend others who can't defend themselves, to give them their day in court, and mostly for being a Muslim." See video on MSNBC