Remember Brandon Mayfield? He’s the guy the FBI arrested in 2004 and held for two weeks for allegedly aiding a terrorist bombings of Spanish commuter trains. Except, he didn’t do it.
Mayfield just won a $2 million settlement from the U.S. government for its rather egregious error, along with a written apology for its mistakes.
Based on a faulty fingerprint match, the FBI arrested Mayfield, raided his house and office, and held him for two weeks. They finally admitted their error and released him.
The kicker to the story: a March 2006 report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General examined the Mayfield case and the Patriot Act, and concluded that for the most part, the new law had no impact on the way the FBI investigated the case. But, the report found, the Patriot Act did allow the FBI to share information about the innocent Mayfield more broadly within the intelligence community.
