A $100 million class action has been filed against the U.S. Postmaster General John E. Potter and several other administrative personnel at the U.S. Postal Service processing and distribution center on Brentwood Road in Northeast Washington, D.C., on behalf of Brentwood postal workers who allege that their Fifth Amendment right to due process of law under the U.S. Constitution was violated when they were exposed to anthrax but not treated in the same efficient manner as victims on Capitol Hill who were exposed when a letter containing the deadly virus was opened in the office of Senator Tom Daschle on October 14, 2001. The action seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2001, two unremarkable letters addressed to Senator Tom Daschle and Senator Patrick Leahy at their U.S. Senate offices in Washington, D.C. were deposited in the U.S. Mail at Trenton, New Jersey. On Thursday, October 11, the Daschle letter entered the Brentwood facility in a mail bag received at the north platform loading dock. The bag was opened and the contents were manually separated into Delivery Bar Code Sorter machine #17. The letter was then moved by mail transport equipment to the Government Mail Section for delivery to the Hart Senate Office Building. Later that morning, the sorting machine was opened and a large blower using compressed air was used to blow debris and dust from the conveyor belts and optical reading heads of the machine, spreading anthrax spores throughout the Brentwood facility. The Daschle letter was delivered to the Hart Senate Office Building at approximately noon on Friday, October 12.

On Monday, October 15, the Daschle letter was opened in the Senator's office in the Hart Senate Office Building. The envelope contained a fine white powder which immediately aroused suspicion, and the Capitol Police were called. Within approximately five minutes, the Capitol Police arrived and performed a field test on the letter, which was found to contain anthrax spores. The ventilation system in the building was immediately shut down and the building was evacuated and closed. Bundles of letters and packages were quarantined, and all mail delivery was suspended. Staffers in Senator Daschle's officer were immediately tested and given antibiotics. Tours of the Capitol were cancelled.

Six days later, the 24-hour-a-day operation at the Brentwood post office was officially closed on October 21, when management confirmed mailmen Joseph Curseen, Jr. and Thomas Morris, Jr. had died from anthrax. Postmaster General John Potter explained the decision to close on that date by saying, "The safety and health of our employees is our foremost concern. We absolutely do not want to risk placing any postal employees in danger. By assuring the safety of our employees, we can assure the safety of our customers."

The Official Response

Even though this was the ironic and public face put on the situation, the action alleges that managers recruited volunteers unaware of the danger to enter the facility on the evening of October 22--one day after the official closing--to retrieve truckloads of mail. They allegedly did not wear biohazard suits or use other approved means of avoiding exposure. The volunteers allegedly transferred the mail to several other facilities for processing. Allegedly, some of the managers at those facilities were unaware the mail had come from Brentwood and tested to see if anthrax spores were present. The tested mail from Brentwood was deemed safe, but it could not be learned if all the other facilities tested for contamination or even were aware that mail had been removed from Brentwood. Since the FBI failed to secure the facility, the mail raid allegedly encountered no obstacles.

When employees came forward with their concerns, they were allegedly threatened, coerced, and intimidated into not making inquiries about the Daschle letter, the safety of the facility, or their own safety. During a regularly scheduled "floor" meeting on Monday, October 15, Brentwood facility Electronic Maintenance Technician Larry Littlejohn, whose job responsibilities included maintaining mail sorting machines, requested that his supervisor provide a briefing on anthrax and proper safety procedures. Allegedly, the supervisor not only refused to provide the requested safety briefing, but he also threatened Mr. Littlejohn with a seven-day suspension and had him forcibly expelled from the building for publicly voicing his concerns. Thereafter, Mr. Littlejohn allegedly received notice that he was being suspended for seven days.

During congressional hearings in 2002, Congress was not told of all of the incidents surrounding the Brentwood contamination episode. Congress wasn't told that Brentwood management was certain that mail was leaking anthrax spores into the environment as early as October 18, according to a day log or "diary" uncovered last year by Judicial Watch, the organization that filed this action on behalf of the Brentwood workers. The journal was allegedly written by Brentwood facility plant manager Timothy Haney. A log entry dated October 18 notes that a private company called URS tested the machine used to process the mail sent to Senator Daschle's office for anthrax. It tested positive for the deadly organism, with a second test confirming the positive finding. Mr. Haney has declined to comment since his diary was made public last year by Judicial Watch.

Behind the Scenes

Judicial Watch obtained a copy of the log and hundreds of internal documents from its recent Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service. The records provide a disturbing behind-the-scenes look at how management reacted to the anthrax attack. The records also allegedly include Postal Service and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines that were instituted in 1999 but not followed at Brentwood.

Despite the confirmation of anthrax, Brentwood employees continued to report to work. Timothy Haney also still walked fearlessly on the plant floor as if nothing had happened, and his bravery allegedly earned him a promotion and a raise. It is alleged that there was no canvass of the neighborhood or follow-up to see if any mail delivered to residents nearby tested positive because the CDC claimed spores could not leak from a sealed envelope.

Mr. Haney's journal allegedly indicates that management talked about the advisability of relocating operations but decided to continue to operate until October 21, when the CDC called and reported yet another test had indicated a positive hit. It was then that management evacuated the building--nearly three days after the first confirmation and a delay that allegedly subjected about 2,200 employees at Brentwood to unnecessary risk including, perhaps, the two men who died.

Brentwood did not need a positive hit to close down--U.S. Postal Service guidelines state that if any postal facility received a "suspect letter" that facility should be shut down. Postal officials issued the policy on October 19, four days after Daschle's office was struck. Since the Brentwood post office processes all of the mail for Capitol Hill, postal officials would have had to know that a letter containing anthrax had passed through it.

The first guidelines were put in place in October 1999 after a series of anthrax hoaxes prompted postal supervisors to issue emergency responses to facilities on how to handle mail that might contain anthrax, including instructing employees to stay in evacuation areas even if a letter is only suspected of containing anthrax. The action alleges that these guidelines were uniformly ignored when real anthrax was infecting Brentwood postal workers.

Brentwood management also allegedly ignored CDC-written guidelines. An October 12, 2001, CDC Health Advisory memo states that if anthrax is suspected employees are to leave the area immediately. CDC guidelines instruct postal management to shut off local fans or ventilation and air-handling systems, and to list all people who were in the room or area where anthrax is suspected. Allegedly, none of these rules were followed.

Initially, postal officials claimed they were unaware that the facility tested positive on October 18, when the notation was allegedly made in Timothy Haney's journal. John Potter held a press conference that day inside Brentwood to assure employees the facility was safe. The action alleges, though, that the Hazardous-Materials (HAZMAT) unit of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Fire Department arrived on that same date to test for anthrax and wore full protective gear while working alongside postal employees who were not protected in any way.

The action alleges that postal management acted under color of federal authority, intentionally depriving Brentwood postal workers of their right to due process, by: (a) providing false or misleading information about the safety of the Brentwood facility after they knew the facility was contaminated with anthrax; (b) failing to provide accurate information to the employees about the safety of the facility after management knew it was contaminated with anthrax, depriving workers of applicable remedies allowed under their collective bargaining agreements; (c) depriving workers of the protections and remedies of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970; and (d) depriving them of the benefit of postal service and CDC emergency response procedures.

Leroy Richmond, another Brentwood worker, filed a $100 million individual lawsuit in January 2003 against the Postmaster General and Brentwood supervisors, charging management waited too long to shut down operations. Also, five deaf Brentwood employees filed a class action in May 2003 against the U.S. Postal Service for having failed to provide sign-language interpreters during the anthrax crisis.