LOS ANGELES : D.A. Reveals Internal Probe

The district attorney’s office, trying to block an effort to remove it from the prosecution of a ring of alleged murderers and drug dealers, revealed this week that five of its employees have been investigated for possibly leaking confidential information to the ring.

One person was exonerated, two employees were fired for unrelated reasons and two others remain under active investigation for possibly disseminating confidential information to the ring, according to court documents.

In the current investigation, no evidence of any leak from the two employees--a deputy district attorney and a clerk--has been found, except for an account by an informant whose follow-up statements were described by prosecutors as “the ravings of a lunatic.”

The internal investigations were revealed in documents filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court. In effect, the documents were an explanation of a claim filed by the district attorney’s office last month alleging that members of the so-called Bryant family may have insider’s access to the prosecutor’s office.