DOJ, ATF Lost Court Battle Against Whistleblower Jay Dobyns, So They’re Making His Life Hell By Appealing
Katie Pavlich | Oct 28, 2014
Last month whistleblower and retired ATF Agent Jay Dobyns won a long court battle against the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after the agency retaliated against him for warning about
corruption in management and failed to address death threats against his family. Some background
on the case:
Dobyns, who infiltrated the dangerous and deadly Hells Angels gang as an undercover agent
years ago, brought a lawsuit against the Bureau after supervisors ignored death threats to
his family, which included plans to murder him either with a bullet or by injecting him with
the AIDS virus, kidnapping and torturing his then 15-year-old daughter and kidnapping his
wife in order to videotape a gang rape of her. Contracts were solicited between the Hells
Angels, the Aryan Brotherhood and the MS-13 gang to carry out these threats, which were
laid out in prison letters and confirmed through FBI and ATF interviews of confidential
informants inside numerous detention centers. In 2008, his Tucson home was burned to
the ground. When the fire was started, his wife and children were inside. Luckily, they
escaped. Instead of investigating, ATF supervisors accused Dobyns of being the arsonist.
In his opinion, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Francis Allegra described ATF officials as
demonstrating misfeasance in the case “rooted in the sorry failure of some ATF officials.” Dobyns
was awarded $173,000, an insufficient amount considering his family has been nearly bankrupted as
a result of ATF’s behavior, not to mention the emotional stress incurred throughout the process.
Now unsatisfied with a loss in court and berating by a federal judge, ATF and the Department of
Justice are appealing the ruling.
“The battle continues. DOJ and ATF appealed the judge’s decision on my lawsuit. It will now be
heard before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. When? Not sure. How long? Maybe years,”
Dobyns wrote on CleanupATF.org last week, “I will never give in and I am excited to now have a
panel of judges examine what ATF and DOJ have done. ATF and DOJ want more scrutiny on their
conduct? Let’s go. I wrongly believed that they would not want any more exposure on what dirty and
corrupt organizations they are running but it appears that they have not yet felt enough pain.
Dobyns has been represented by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund throughout this process.
His attorney James Reed told the Arizona Republic the move to appeal by ATF is strange
considering how insufficient the damages being paid by the Bureau amount to.
“It really doesn’t seem like a good use for the taxpayers’ money, but one of the problems with the
Department of Justice is the amount of accountability there is for decision making,” Reed said.
The decision to appeal no doubt is the continuation of retaliation from the Bureau against Dobyns,
proving that nothing has changed since Acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones promised to cleanup the
agency.
You can read more about the background of Dobyns’ case against the government here.
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