Federal judge in California poised to dismiss former terrorism informant’s suit against FBI

Judge poised to dismiss informant’s suit vs. FBI

SANTA ANA, Calif. — The FBI should be removed from a federal lawsuit filed by a former informant who infiltrated a California mosque and helped build a case against a man with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden, a judge said in a tentative ruling Thursday.

U.S. District Judge James Selna’s ruling removes an FBI supervisor from Craig Monteilh’s lawsuit and dismisses the only cause of action against the U.S. government with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be refiled. The claims against the FBI supervisor, however, can be amended and refiled within 20 days.

Selna plans to hear arguments and issue a final ruling Friday.

Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI, declined to comment.

The Irvine Police Department and an Irvine detective are also named in the lawsuit the counterterrorism informant filed in January. A judge will rule on a motion to dismiss the parts of the lawsuit against the Irvine police at an Aug. 30 hearing.

Monteilh said in court papers that he posed as a part-French, part-Syrian Muslim convert and infiltrated the Islamic Center of Irvine for 15 months in 2006 and 2007, gathering intelligence for his FBI handlers in a counterterrorism probe called “Operation Flex.”

Some of Monteilh’s work led to the arrest of Ahmadullah Niazi, an Afghan-born man who was arrested in February 2009 on suspicion of lying about ties to terrorist groups on his application to become a U.S. citizen and other papers.

At a bail hearing for Niazi shortly after his arrest, FBI Special Agent Thomas J. Ropel III testified that an informant had helped build the case against Niazi by secretly taping him talking about “jihad” and calling bin Laden an “angel.”

Ropel didn’t identify the informant as Monteilh but said mosque members — including Niazi — eventually filed a restraining order against the informant when they became suspicious of his behavior.

Court papers associated with the restraining order, which was granted, identify Monteilh as the informant.

Niazi is free on bail pending a November trial. His attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Monteilh’s relationship with the FBI soured shortly after the June 2007 restraining order. Within six months, he was arrested by Irvine police on allegations that he scammed two women out of more than $157,000 by telling them he would invest their money in human growth hormone and supplement sales.

Monteilh says, however, that he was working as an FBI informant investigating a steroid distribution ring and the women were his targets. He said he was ordered by the FBI not to divulge his status as an informant and pleaded guilty so as not to jeopardize the mosque investigation.

Monteilh served eight months in prison after pleading guilty to felony grand theft.

In the lawsuit, which sought $10 million, Monteilh alleges he was promised $100,000, paid time to readjust to civilian life and an “exit strategy” after the dustup — none of which he says he received.

The judge said in his ruling, among other things, that allowing Monteilh to sue over his conviction in the grand theft case would call into question his guilty plea and prison term, and unless those convictions were independently reversed or expunged, there were no grounds for the lawsuit.

The 48-year-old former fitness trainer said he was disappointed by the tentative ruling.

“I’m pretty astonished by the ruling,” Monteilh said. “Everything we stated in our complaint is what we absolutely believe happened and we were definitely going to pursue that.”

Monteilh’s attorney, Adam Krolikowski, said if the judge’s ruling becomes final, he will appeal and also file an amended complaint against only the FBI supervisor.

“This is far from over,” he said.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment until the judge’s final ruling.

Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that the informant was not Afghan-born.)