I-485 and I-130 Denied - Prove a negative

[mawenzi]

I am a US Citizen and my spouse is from an African nation. Spouse marked "married" on previous US Visa and Asylum applications, however, they were not actually married by the definition of law in their country. Of course, they did not know this and there is no box on the USCIS forms similar to "domestic partnership". After the Asylum application, we got married; they withdrew Asylum and filed I-130 and I-485 which have both been denied due to "polygamy". USCIS asked us to prove that they were not married to anyone else when we were married; we supplied a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage and a Ministry of Interior letter from a local Chief. USCIS rejected both of these forms outright; we are certain that USCIS accepts marriage roll searches from European countries in order to prove the negative (ie you were not married at that time); there is no such thing as a marriage roll search in spouses home country. The documents are true and real and can be easily verified online.
Spouse entered US lawfully with Visa. Asylum was filed within 1 year of Visa expiration. We have no criminal record; neither of us have ever even been arrested. I have volunteered for a US Government Agency. I am a W-2 employee and pay all my taxes. Basically there are no other issues than checking the wrong box (which was checked at the request of Lawyer #1).

Have others from African nations had problems like this?

We are now faced with two options:
1. re-file the I-130 and hope for a different outcome (seems like the definition of insanity) or
2. sue USCIS in Federal Court with an Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) Complaint package

Our 5th lawyer tells us that with Forum they will likely approve I-130 and decline the I-485 and then decline an I-601.
Has anyone gone through a similar process?