The gov't really screwed this guy.........he will be ever tainted with this arrest.
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Error Tied U.S. Lawyer to Spain Blasts; Judge Voids Case
By MARIA NEWMAN
Published: May 24, 2004
Citing a misidentified fingerprint, a United States federal court in Portland today ordered that material witness proceedings be dismissed against an immigration lawyer who was being questioned in connection with the deadly Madrid bombings.
The court said that "due to a misidentification by the F.B.I. of a fingerprint," prosecutors had to drop the proceedings against the lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, who was arrested May 6 and held as a material witness in the March 11 Madrid attacks, which killed 191 people and injured more than 2,000.
A fingerprint that had been identified as his turned out instead to belong to an Algerian, Spanish officials said Thursday.
Mr. Mayfield, a Portland immigration and family lawyer, was abruptly released from jail on Thursday, after a closed detention hearing. After his release, Mr. Mayfield returned to home to his wife and three children, and they still did not know why he was detained, relatives said on Thursday.
nytimes.com |
