A $1 million lawsuit filed against Target says an innocent man’s life was turned upside down after an employee at the store near Washington Square made up a story of seeing photos of naked and bound children on the customer’s cellphone.

The employee made a report to Tigard police and the FBI, prompting a monthslong investigation into 43-year-old Jeffrey Buckmeyer, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Officers from both agencies showed up at Buckmeyer’s Tigard apartment last summer, searched his apartment, seized his computers and cellphone, handcuffed him and interrogated him in the back of a police car in full view of his neighbors, according to the suit and a lawyer associated with the case.

The accusations against Buckmeyer could have sent him to prison for decades.

But more than four months later, the FBI returned the electronic devices after failing to find any child pornography or proof that Buckmeyer abused children while creating pornography, said Graham Fisher, a criminal defense lawyer who Buckmeyer hired to represent him.

“Not a shred,” Fisher said.

Buckmeyer died several months later in April after suffering a heart attack, according to the lawsuit.

His family is suing Target on behalf of his estate, suspecting that the overwhelming stress of being investigated as a child molester contributed to his cardiac problems, said Portland attorney Michael Fuller, the civil attorney representing Buckmeyer’s estate. The lawsuit, however, doesn’t explicitly make that claim.

A Target spokeswoman, Danielle Schumann, declined comment. That included declining to answer a question about whether the employee still worked at the store.

Tigard police spokesman Jim Wolf and FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele also declined comment on their investigation. Neither agency is being sued by Buckmeyer’s estate.

Buckmeyer had no criminal history, according to Fuller. A search of Oregon and federal court records also showed Buckmeyer had nothing but driving infractions and parking tickets to his name.

He was an insurance salesman, lived alone and had a teenage daughter who lived with her mother in California.

“As far as I can tell, he was a straight shooter, living his life in Tigard,” Fuller said.

Buckmeyer’s troubles began July 24, 2018, when he walked into the electronics section at the Target store at 9009 S.W. Hall Blvd. and asked an employee for help freeing up storage space on his iPhone 6S, according to court papers filed by the FBI.

The employee told police that he tried to help the man, later identified as Buckmeyer, by opening a folder that contained more than 1,000 photographs, according to the court papers. In all, he said he viewed 15 to 20 of those photographs.

The employee offered a very specific account of what he saw, saying he glimpsed photos of naked girls who appeared to be about 10 years old or younger and of different ethnicities, according to the FBI’s court filing. The employee said some of them were tied up in what appeared to be “sadomasochistic abuse,” the court papers said.

The employee also said he saw naked photos of Buckmeyer in an aroused state and that most of the photos appeared to be taken in a bedroom with a bed that looked like ones sold at IKEA.

The electronics employee immediately alerted store security personnel, who tailed Buckmeyer through the store, ultimately watching him make a purchase and pulling his identify from his credit card, according to the court papers. As Buckmeyer left, store security recorded the license plate of his black Nissan Versa, which also was registered under his name, the documents said.

A week later, a judge read the FBI’s report of what the employee said and signed a search warrant, according to court documents. On the morning of Aug. 2, 2018, law enforcement executed the search warrant on Buckmeyer’s home, according to the lawsuit.

Fisher, Buckmeyer’s criminal defense attorney, said Buckmeyer told FBI agents he didn't have any child pornography and that the Target employee was 100% wrong. But the investigation continued.

Ultimately, this past January after 120 days of court-granted permission to hold Buckmeyer’s seized devices were up, the FBI returned Buckmeyer’s two laptops and phone, saying it was dropping the case, Fisher said.

Buckmeyer wasn’t charged.

Fisher said it’s rare for the FBI to go as far as it did based solely on the word of a store employee and find absolutely no child pornography.

The lawsuit and the attorneys associated with the case said they don’t know why the employee said what he did. But the suit claims the employee “intended to inflict severe emotional distress” on Buckmeyer with his “intentional, outrageous and extreme decision to falsely accuse” Buckmeyer.

The lawsuit doesn’t name the employee or a second employee that the suit claims relayed information to police. Court papers filed by the FBI don’t name them, either.

The lawsuit says they caused Buckmeyer “severe ongoing anguish.”

Fisher said the FBI would have been able to inspect all of Buckmeyer’s internet searches, emails and personal documents, and that violated his privacy. “They would have gone through them with a fine-tooth comb,” he said.

Fuller, the civil attorney for Buckmeyer’s estate, said Target’s report to the FBI also diverted important law enforcement resources.

“They were taking resources that the FBI could use to investigate real criminals, sending them on a wild goose chase,” Fuller said.

Read the lawsuit here.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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