Bryant Case Prosecutor Removed : Drug ring: Jan Maurizi was dogged by unwanted publicity on the heels of her charges that the gang had infiltrated a host of government agencies.

The chief prosecutor in the Bryant family murder trial--who alleged that members of the notorious drug ring had infiltrated law enforcement agencies--has been removed from the case, a Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokesman said Monday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Maurizi, who has been dogged by unwanted publicity in the case over the past two months, was replaced Thursday by Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin McCormick, spokesman Mike Botula said.

The change was ordered by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who sent a letter announcing the decision to the judge and defense attorneys in the case last week, Botula said.

“It is anticipated that Maurizi will become a witness in this or one of the related cases,” Botula said. The “interests of justice” caused her to be taken off the prosecution team, he said.

Botula said he could not further explain the circumstances prompting Garcetti to pull Maurizi from the case, which she was assigned to nearly four years ago.

Stanley Bryant, 34, and four other alleged members of a crime syndicate are accused of killing two rival drug dealers and two witnesses in 1988 at a Lake View Terrace house.

Prosecutors also allege that the Bryant syndicate, which was said to employ 200 people, distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine each month throughout the San Fernando Valley.

Charges against two other defendants were dropped earlier this month for lack of evidence.

The trial, now set for January in Los Angeles, had been delayed after Maurizi in court papers filed this fall charged that members of the Bryant organization had infiltrated a host of government agencies, including police departments and the district attorney’s office itself.

A judge two weeks ago ruled that there was no evidence to support that claim.