Judge Rules Victim’s Sister Can’t Sue Feds Federally Protected Witness Pleaded Guilty To Killing Man In 1991

Even if the federal government abused its discretion, a Spokane woman cannot sue the U.S. Marshal Service for the murder of her brother, a judge says.

Lili Vedadi had sought $10 million, contending a federally protected witness had killed her brother, Iraj “George” Vedadi, in Spokane in 1991.

Federal witness Nicholas Mitola Jr. pleaded guilty to stabbing Vedadi and was sentenced to four years in prison in June 1992.

Mitola was an FBI informer who had infiltrated the Mafia in New Jersey before being relocated secretly to Spokane under an assumed name in December 1987.

Mitola and Vedadi later met at a state-licensed card room in Spokane and still later became involved in cocaine deals, court papers say.

Vedadi was fatally stabbed in a dispute which occurred as Mitola tried to sell him 5 pounds of cocaine. The substance turned out to be sugar.

Vedadi’s sister, represented by Spokane attorneys Carl Maxey and Aaron Lowe, filed suit against the U.S. government in December 1993.

The suit alleged the federal witness protection program had failed to supervise Mitola adequately and his criminal conduct had caused Vedadi’s death.

The Mitola case and others involving federal witnesses who have committed murder were featured Tuesday evening on the TV news magazine show “Dateline NBC.”

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush dismissed Lili Vedadi’s suit, citing the federal government’s right of “sovereign immunity.”

“A party bringing (suit) against the federal government bears the burden of demonstrating an unequivocal waiver of immunity” by the U.S. government, the judge ruled.

The Federal Tort Claims Act, passed by Congress, protects the federal government from being sued when its agencies exercise their “discretionary function.”

“This so-called ‘discretionary function’ exception to the government’s liability reflects the wish of Congress to prevent judicial second-guessing of legislative and administrative decisions grounded in social, economic and political policy,” Quackenbush said.

“The law obviously needs to be changed because there are simply too many incidents (like this) and nobody is taking responsibility,” said Maxey. “We are in a sad state of affairs when a criminal like Mitola can violate the law under the supervision of the government.”