ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Day of Mourning for Treasurer’s Office : Reaction: Employees take news of forced leave with shock, tears. Some say they did only what they were told to do.

When the beleaguered employees of the Orange County treasurer’s office arrived at work early Friday, they found a surprise spread of free coffee and Danish.

A short time later, they were ushered into a darkened conference room, where a box of Kleenex sat on the table. There was a county doctor on hand in case anyone fainted.

The news was about as terrible as the workers could imagine: The entire staff was placed immediately on paid administrative leave.

Then came another blow: Some employees would have to hang around until noon to train newcomers to do their jobs.

And then it got even worse: Labor officials told the investment officers, accountants, systems analysts and secretaries that it might be time for them to hire criminal attorneys.

“We all felt like it was the Last Supper,” one employee said of the pastry spread. “We’ve been through so much in the past two months. They’ve just gotten rid of everyone down to the last file clerk and secretary. It’s like a bad dream.”

After the meeting, the basement hallways outside the treasurer-tax collector’s office became a house of mourning, with groups of teary-eyed employees huddled together conferring about their fates.

Some scooped up potted plants and family photos and slipped out the door, declining to talk.

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Three women emerged from the meeting red-eyed and scurried into the bathroom to gather their composure. Another woman who had driven her car pool to work worried about how her colleagues from other departments would get home.

All told, 14 people were placed on indefinite leave Friday, completing a housecleaning that began when longtime Treasurer Tax-Collector Robert L. Citron resigned in disgrace days before the county filed for bankruptcy protection Dec. 6.

Assistant Treasurer Matthew Raabe and two top aides were suspended earlier this week in the wake of the county’s revelations that millions had been improperly transferred among accounts in the county’s failed investment pool.

Employees from Arthur Andersen and Co., the accounting firm hired to help the county after its bankruptcy filing, will take over some of the treasurer’s office work. State Treasurer Matt Fong also has been asked for help, and employees from other county departments may soon be transferred over.

“No one has been fired, let me make that perfectly clear,” interim Treasurer Thomas E. Daxon said later at a news conference. “We do not know that any of these individuals have done anything wrong or that they have knowingly violated the law. That needs to be underlined several times.”

Six of the employees are managers, the rest professional and support staff. Labor officials--who were notified of the impending suspensions Thursday night--were outraged at the move.

“We don’t want to see the county conducting a witch hunt. We don’t want to see the county blaming the little people,” said Kathleen Sage, an attorney with the Orange County Employees Assn., who advised the suspended workers to seek criminal lawyers of their own.

“They were very sober, very brave, but there were tears in their eyes, they were frightened,” said Sage, who sat in on the closed-door meeting with Daxon Friday morning for a few minutes. “That’s understandable. Somebody up above them isn’t stepping up to take the blame.”

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Because of ongoing criminal probes into the county’s financial crisis by the Orange County district attorney’s office and federal law enforcement authorities, the few workers who spoke about the situation asked that their names be withheld.

“We didn’t know what was going on. They think if we just signed off on something we’re involved,” one employee said. “We did what we were told.”

Employees in the tax-collection division, which shared quarters and a boss with the treasurer’s office, stood anxiously in the hallway outside the office as well.

“None of them did nothing. They’re just employees,” said one woman. “I’m in shock. It’s not a good day for us.”

“They’re good friends,” added a second.

“It’s like anyplace else,” said a third. “You do what you’re told and you don’t ask questions.”

Times staff writer Greg Johnson also contributed to this story.