U.S. attorney in Los Angeles stepping down

Thomas P. O'Brien, the Los Angeles-based U.S. Attorney for the Central District, will be stepping down to practice law at a private firm.

O'Brien will leave Sept. 1 to take a job with the Paul Hastings law firm, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles.

A former Navy Top Gun instructor and gang prosecutor in the district attorney's office, O'Brien led an office that took on a number of high-profile prosecutions.

Since he was sworn in as U.S. Attorney in October 2007, O'Brien oversaw a number of high-profile cases, including a grand jury investigation of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's handling of molestation by priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles also aggressively pursued local street gangs, including a sweeping racketeering case against a Hawaiian Gardens gang that O'Brien described as the "largest gang take-down in U.S. history."

O’Brien graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1981 and received his law degree in 1991 from the University of San Diego School of Law. He was on a flight Monday evening and unavailable for comment.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Comments

[Samantha]

Another good man leaving. Maybe he decided with Bratton leaving , it was a good time to exit. No doubt he'll be missed. Wish him well in his venture.

[lame]

come on, folks, this is lame. Can you float at least a couple of names of likely replacements? Can you include a paragraph indicating this was expected with the change of administrations? Or, if it wasn't expected -- if someone thought this guy would stay in the job -- can you tell us what happened? This is a rewritten press release. Stenography.

[Rod Bernsen]

Thank you God.
This man was responsible for prosecuting me on charges that stood little chance of a conviction but promised big headlines. This man tried to intimidate me into pleading guilty by threatening to go back to the federal grand jury and indict me on more serious charges.
All those years I was a Los Angeles Police Officer I learned about what made a great prosecutor-- O'Brien isn't one of them. May God protect those who he represents in the future.

Rod Bernsen