The total for September, the last month of the fiscal year, was more than triple the number of cases filed in the first month of the year, internal statistics show.
There was a particularly dramatic increase in the number of cases filed against immigrants with felony convictions who were caught in the country after having been deported. Known colloquially as "1326 cases" in reference to their designation in the federal penal code, such cases are a favorite for meeting quotas because they require little time and effort, according to the prosecutors interviewed by The Times.
In the five months of the fiscal year preceding the March meeting, prosecutors filed an average of 17 such cases per month, statistics show. From the time of that meeting through the end of the fiscal year, the number rose to 65 cases per month.
O'Brien attributed the rise in cases, in part, to the newly announced goals. But he said stepped-up efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a relatively new unit in the U.S. attorney's office that specialized in handling immigration cases also contributed to the increase.
He said he has begun to bring in lawyers on loan from local prosecutors' offices to help handle the load of immigration cases and free up his prosecutors "to work on bigger cases."
Meanwhile, O'Brien's critics say some prosecutors who have failed to meet their alleged quotas have been downgraded in their evaluations and were consequently denied bonuses or were paid less than if they'd received top marks.
One veteran prosecutor in the narcotics section spoke out against the alleged practice, saying it was unethical to link the number of defendants a lawyer charged with that lawyer's evaluation because it would give the lawyer a financial incentive to file cases, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
The prosecutor was later transferred out of narcotics against his will.
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scott.glover@latimes.com
