June 12, 2010

U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. announced Friday that he was creating a specialized unit to prosecute public corruption and civil rights cases, such as those involving politicians or police officers accused of crimes.

The move effectively restores a similar unit that was disbanded by Birotte's predecessor, Thomas P. O'Brien, two years ago.

"My experience has taught me that oversight breeds public confidence in government, and public confidence breeds better government," Birotte wrote in a memo circulated to his staff, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. "The public needs to be able to rely on federal law enforcement to act as a watchdog for public institutions and the individuals who hold positions of trust in those organizations."

Veteran prosecutor Lawrence Middleton, who cut his teeth on the federal prosecution of the Los Angeles police officers convicted of violating the civil rights of Rodney G. King, will oversee the unit of six or seven yet-to-be-named attorneys, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for Birotte.

Birotte said in the memo that he hoped to have the unit operational by July 1.

Laurie Levenson, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who is now a professor at Loyola Law School, praised Birotte for restoring the section.

"It was troubling that an office this size didn't have such a unit," Levenson said. "What it says to me is that this U.S. attorney wants to get ahead of the curve. He doesn't want to wait until there's a major incident and then say, 'Where are my people to handle it?."

O'Brien eliminated the public integrity and environmental crimes unit in 2008 because he felt the 17 attorneys in it weren't sufficiently productive. He said he thought such prosecutions would increase if attorneys throughout the office were allowed to handle those cases. The prosecutors were divided among various sections in the office and environmental crimes became a stand-alone unit, which now has about five attorneys assigned to it. O'Brien's move drew criticism from some, including attorneys within his own office.

Critics charged that O'Brien was overly focused on statistics and said it was unfair to judge the public integrity section by numbers alone because its lawyers focused on time-consuming, complex cases that can take years to come to fruition.

After reading press accounts of the shakeup, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pressed then-Atty. G. Michael B. Mukasey for an explanation of the decision. Mukasey said he supported O'Brien's move to restructure the office.

Birotte, who served as the civilian watchdog at the Los Angeles Police Department for six years before being appointed U.S. attorney by President Obama, wrote in the memo that he consulted with people both inside and outside the office before deciding to form the new unit. Its mission, he wrote, will be "to bring to justice those public officials and public employees who violate the public's trust."