Asked about the recent dismantling of a high-profile unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles that specialized in public corruption cases, an office spokesman provided what some saw as a curious justification:
Eliminating the public integrity and environmental crimes section, spokesman Thom Mrozek said, would actually enhance the effort to prosecute such cases.
He explained that the unit's 17 lawyers would be farmed out to other sections in the office and that those types of cases would now be handled by a larger pool of attorneys, instead of by a select few.
But in interviews with The Times, several members of the disbanded unit challenged that explanation, saying the move was intended to punish lawyers for a perceived failure to produce and for bad-mouthing their boss, U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O'Brien.
The lawyers described a meeting last week in which an angry O'Brien derided attorneys in the office for working too few hours, filing too few cases and for speaking ill of him to subordinates.
They said O'Brien also threatened to tarnish their reputations if they challenged the official explanation for the unit's dismantling in conversations with reporters. Members of the unit contacted by The Times either spoke on the condition that they not be named or declined to comment. Several said they wanted to talk about the situation but feared reprisals if they did so.
Critics of the move said they were concerned that it would severely limit the office's ability to file long-term, complex corruption cases involving elected officials and other high-profile figures.
In recent years, the unit has prosecuted politicians in South Gate and Lynwood, as well as a gang of rogue police officers and others who conducted home-invasion-style robberies staged to look like legitimate law enforcement raids -- a case that O'Brien himself helped prosecute.
In an interview Wednesday, O'Brien declined to comment on the accusations against him, saying it would be improper to discuss what occurred in a private meeting with his staff.
But he strongly disputed the notion that the change would negatively affect the office's ability to file public corruption cases.
"The whole idea here is to do more, not less," said O'Brien, a former Navy "Top Gun" instructor and deputy district attorney, who took charge of the office last fall. "I guarantee that we will be filing more public corruption and civil rights cases than we have in the past."
