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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=5><b>Spanish police: We told the FBI the fingerprints
weren't Mayfield's</b></font><font size=3> <br>
<a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2001939067&zsection_id=268448413&slug=webmayfield26&date=20040526" eudora="autourl">http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2001939067&zsection_id=268448413&slug=webmayfield26&date=20040526<br>
</a></font><font face="times" size=2><b>By Mar
Roman</b></font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2><i>The Associated Press</i></font><font size=3>
<br><br>
MADRID, Spain Spanish police told the FBI all along that they doubted
the fingerprints on a plastic bag containing detonators like those used
in the Madrid train bombing belonged to the Oregon lawyer wrongly
arrested in the case, an official said today. <br><br>
The prints of a thumb and finger were only partial and ill-defined
because the bag was plastic, the police official said in a phone
interview, speaking on condition his name not be used. <br><br>
Spanish police found only several points of coincidence between
Portland-area attorney Brandon Mayfield's fingerprints and those on the
bag, the official said, adding there should be at least 12 such
similarities. <br><br>
Suspected Islamic terrorists set off 10 backpacks of explosives in four
commuter trains the morning of March 11 in or near downtown Madrid,
killing 191 passengers or bystanders and injuring more than 2,000.
<br><br>
Fingerprints were found on a plastic bag that was in a van left near the
Alcala de Henares train station, from where three of the four bombed
trains had departed. <br><br>
The fingerprints were sent to Interpol, and Spanish police reportedly met
FBI agents in Madrid on April 21. The latter were convinced the print was
Mayfield's. The Spaniards weren't. <br><br>
On May 6, Mayfield, 37, was arrested as a material witness in the
bombings. He always said he was innocent. <br><br>
Last Thursday, Spanish forensics police disclosed they finally made their
own match: an Algerian identified as Ouhnane Daoud. Within hours,
Mayfield was released from jail and the FBI subsequently apologized.
<br><br>
Spanish police said the plastic bag never left Spain and that a digital
copy was sent to Paris-based Interpol. <br><br>
The official also noted today that police told the FBI there was no
record of Mayfield having been in Spain recently. <br><br>
<br>
</font><h1><b>Transcripts detail objections, early signs of flaws
</b></h1><font size=2><a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/front_page/1085573028161310.xml" eudora="autourl">http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/front_page/1085573028161310.xml<br>
</a></font><font face="arial" size=2>Wednesday, May 26, 2004 <br>
LES ZAITZ <br><br>
Just hours after his arrest, Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield adamantly
told a federal judge that the fingerprint evidence against him was wrong,
and he objected to news leaks that already were damaging his name,
according to transcripts of closed-door court hearings released to The
Oregonian. <br><br>
Mayfield was arrested May 6 as a material witness when the FBI linked him
to a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators near the explosions in
Madrid, Spain, that killed more than 190 people in March. <br><br>
"That's not my fingerprint, your honor," Mayfield told U.S.
District Judge Robert Jones in Portland. "If it is, I don't know how
it got there. It is not my fingerprint." <br><br>
The transcripts provide a rare glimpse into two weeks of secret court
hearings involving Mayfield's detention as a material witness. He was
released last week, and the case was dismissed Monday when the FBI
conceded it was mistaken in saying the fingerprint belonged to Mayfield.
Jones ordered court records unsealed Monday. <br><br>
The transcripts show Jones carefully explained the proceedings to
Mayfield, even providing him with a 32-page court ruling in another case
that explained material witness situations. He also tried to push a
resolution to get Mayfield out of jail in a matter of days, according to
the transcripts. <br><br>
The transcripts also show that Mayfield spoke politely but firmly to the
judge about his arrest and the government's circumstantial case against
him, outlined in a nine-page federal affidavit. <br><br>
"I have a problem with this affidavit," Mayfield told the
judge. "I looked at it. I assume you have looked at it. We are
talking about a fingerprint that was provided by the . . . Spanish
police. That was a photograph of a latent print on this alleged bag. I
have never seen this bag." <br><br>
Mayfield pointed out that the affidavit revealed that Spanish officials
in mid-April were questioning the FBI identification. <br><br>
"There was some conflict about their matching fingerprint,"
Mayfield said. <br><br>
Jones acknowledged that the fingerprint evidence still needed to be
proved but that the initial identification required him to keep Mayfield
in custody. <br><br>
<b>"Gravity of the matter" <br><br>
</b>"Because of the gravity of the matter . . . if that is his
fingerprint with the 200-plus dead people and 1,500 injured and the
potential call on the witness to Spain, I'm not going to release this
material witness until the testimony is complete," Jones said.
<br><br>
The transcripts show Jones told Mayfield he could notify his Aloha family
about his arrest. <br><br>
"These proceedings are closed; they are secret," Jones said.
"But I want to make certain that you understood that we are just not
taking people and holding them incognito and not letting them address the
world. You have a right to have people know you are in custody."
<br><br>
Mayfield told Jones the government could have subpoenaed him and he would
have appeared. He said he hoped to be released so he could tend to
clients of his one-person law practice. "I don't think it's
necessary to detain me," he said. <br><br>
He recounted for the judge how he was arrested at his West Slope law
office by two FBI agents. <br><br>
"I am an officer of this court," Mayfield said. "To me, it
is embarrassing. It is humiliating. I am amazed I am arrested and before
you in this courtroom." <br><br>
<b>When arrested <br><br>
</b>When the agents arrested Mayfield, "I asked that they take the
cuffs off me. They graciously put them in front of me," Mayfield
said. He also learned that news reporters were aware of the arrest.
<br><br>
"When we were in the Ford Explorer, I said: 'I don't want to make a
big scene.' (The agent's) reaction was: The media is close behind. Why is
the media close behind? This can ruin my reputation," he continued.
<br><br>
The transcript shows Jones ordered the government to restore Mayfield's
home, office and cars to their condition before they were searched by the
FBI. <br><br>
"We don't want to have some claim of some drawer was pulled out and
left all over the floor and that sort of thing," Jones said.
<br><br>
Later in the hearing, Mayfield's initial attorney, Thomas Nelson, asked
the judge to underscore that order with "some emphasis" because
"the current condition of the house is bad." <br><br>
The transcripts also reveal that prosecutors were alerted to a problem
with the fingerprint earlier than previously disclosed. The record shows
prosecutors told Jones there was some doubt immediately after a defense
fingerprint expert confirmed the FBI's match. <br><br>
<b>Forensic expert <br><br>
</b>Ken Moses of Forensic Identification Services testified on May 19
that the print from Spain "is the left index finger of Mr.
Mayfield." <br><br>
But under defense questioning, Moses said the identification was
"quite difficult." <br><br>
"There is some distortion and some blotting out," he said.
"There is indication of some movement of the finger, which creates
some streaking. There is some evidence of a background fingerprint
structure; that is, more than one fingerprint may have been laid down in
the same area." <br><br>
When Moses finished, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Gorder told Jones
that prosecutors "received some information from Spain this morning
that casts some doubt on the identification." Gorder didn't go into
detail, telling Jones he would talk to him in his chambers because the
issue was classified. <br><br>
"Right now, I want to hear how serious this problem is with
Spain," Jones said. After meeting privately with Gorder, Jones said
in court that the problem wasn't significant enough to warrant releasing
Mayfield. <br><br>
That happened at the next hearing on May 20. <br><br>
<b>Algerian suspect <br><br>
</b>Gorder said the Spanish had linked the print to an Algerian suspect.
He said the FBI was waiting for information, and until examiners changed
their conclusions, "it is our opinion that it is still Mr.
Mayfield's print on that blue bag." <br><br>
When Jones asked him about another issue, Gorder said he hadn't had time
to consider it. <br><br>
"I spent the last 24 hours worrying about the fingerprint
issue," Gorder said. <br><br>
Gorder agreed Mayfield could be released, and Jones ordered Mayfield
freed to home detention. He rejected the government's request for
electronic monitoring of Mayfield. <br><br>
Four days later, FBI examiners retracted the claim of a match, and
prosecutors dropped the case against Mayfield. <br><br>
Les Zaitz: 503-221-8181;leszaitz@news.oregonian.com <br><br>
<div align="center">Copyright 2004 Oregon Live. All Rights
Reserved.<br><br>
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