Brandon Mayfield
Brandon Mayfield (born
1966) is an attorney at law with a practice in
Washington County,
Oregon and is best known for being erroneously linked to the
11 March, 2004 Madrid attacks. The United States
FBI arrested him Thursday,
May 6 2004 at his offices in
West Slope, an unincorporated suburb of
Portland, Oregon, as a
material witness in connection with the Madrid attacks.
Mayfield was born in
Coos Bay, Oregon, but grew up in
Halstead, Kansas. He served in the
US Army Reserve from 1985 to 1989; he later served as an officer with the Army in
Bitburg,
Germany from 1992 to 1994. He met Mona, an Egyptian national and the daughter of a college professor, on a blind date in 1987, and converted to
Islam following his marriage to her shortly afterwards. While he was a regular worshipper at the
Beaverton mosque, his colleagues were unaware of his religious beliefs. The
imam of the mosque has described Mayfield as "very patriotic".
He studied law at
Washburn University and
Lewis and Clark College, receiving his law degree from Washburn in 1999, and practicing family law in
Newport, before moving to the Portland area. Mayfield performed work for the Modest Means Program of the
Oregon State Bar, which matches attorneys who are willing to work at reduced rates with low-income clients. In 2003 he offered legal aid to Jeffrey Leon Battle, one of
the Portland Seven, a group of people that was convicted of trying to travel to
Afghanistan to help the
Taliban. Battle at the time was involved in a child custody case.
Following the
September 11, 2001 attacks, Mayfield was concerned for the safety of his children and wife, and according to his father, he suspected that he was under surveillance by the federal authorities. In the weeks before his arrest, Mayfield's family was under the impression that their house had been broken into twice, although nothing was stolen.
A bag containing detonating devices, found by Spanish authorities following the Madrid commuter train bombings, had fingerprints that were initially identified by the FBI as belonging to Mayfield ("100% verified"). The FBI then arrested Mayfield in a manner similar to the then-recent
Mike Hawash case, under a
material witness warrant rather than under charge, and held him with limited access to family and legal counsel. He was at first held at a
Multnomah County jail under a false name; he was later transferred to an unidentified location. His family protested that Mayfield had no connection with the bombings, nor has been to
Spain in over 11 years.
Following his arrest, the Spanish authorities relayed their increasing doubts that the fingerprint on the bag was actually his to the FBI, yet the American law enforcement organization kept him imprisoned. On
May 21 the Spanish authorities at last announced that the fingerprints actually belonged to an
Algerian national,
Ouhnane Daoud; within two hours, Mayfield was released from custody and returned home, although a
gag order remained in force for the next few days. By
May 25, the case was dismissed by the judge, who ordered the return of seized evidence and unsealing of documents pertaining to his arrest.
Although the FBI afterwards apologized for their acts, Mayfield has filed several lawsuits over this invasion of his privacy. One, which currently is before the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeks to force the government to return or destroy copies of items seized from his home. Another, which will be argued before U.S. District Court Judge
Ann Aiken July 15 2005, challenges the law which was used against him as
unconstitutional.
*
Portland Oregonian: Residue of arrest clutters Mayfield's present, future*
Portland Oregonian: Material witness law is being abused*
Portland Tribune: How the FBI's arrest of suspected terrorist Brandon Mayfield unraveled*
The Australian: US backs down on detained lawyer*
WIRED Magazine: January 2006 analysis of Mayfield case
