Before its disbanding, lawyers in the section prosecuted politicians in South Gate and Lynwood, as well as a group of rogue police officers and others who were conducting home invasion-style robberies staged to look like legitimate police raids.
Several lawyers in the disbanded unit said in interviews with The Times last week that it was eliminated earlier this month after a meeting with O'Brien, in which he angrily chastised prosecutors for working too few hours, filing too few cases and for bad-mouthing him behind his back.
Those lawyers requested anonymity because they allegedly were warned that if they challenged the office's explanation of the move in interviews with reporters, they would face retaliation.
In the interview last week, O'Brien declined to comment on the allegations against him but insisted that the reorganization was aimed at enhancing -- not hindering -- the effort to combat public corruption.
O'Brien said he was planning to appoint special coordinators to oversee the handling of such cases by a wider pool of attorneys in the office and for special training by experts from the Justice Department.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said she had read Feinstein's letter and thought it was unusual.
"I don't think she's usually that intricately involved in the personnel decisions of the U.S. attorney's offices," Levenson said. "It sounds like she has some concerns about the management process."
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scott.glover@latimes.com
