UC Irvine Fires Clinic’s Top Officials : Scandal: Medical center chief and assistant are terminated for allegedly trying to cover up fertility unit improprieties and retaliate against whistle-blowers.

The embattled executive director of UC Irvine Medical Center and her chief deputy were fired Thursday amid allegations they had retaliated against whistle-blowers and tried to cover up a scandal involving the university’s renowned fertility clinic.

The appointments of medical center chief Mary Piccione and deputy Herb Spiwak will end June 30, according to a brief announcement released by UC Irvine on Thursday. Wendell C. Brase, 48, vice chancellor for administrative and business services, will take over as acting executive director.

“It’s called cleaning out the stables,” said Glenn Campbell, a member of the University of California Board of Regents.

The ousters came with no explanation from UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, who made the decision but repeatedly has refused to discuss the scandal.

The university has drawn national attention in the past month because of allegations that three of its most prominent physicians took human eggs from patients and implanted them in others without permission.

“I have great confidence in Vice Chancellor Brase and in his demonstrated ability in personnel administration, financial management and information technology,” Wilkening said in a prepared statement, making no reference to the two administrators.

Neither Piccione nor Spiwak could be reached for comment.

An attorney representing the pair protested the action as unfair.

“The firing of Mary Piccione and Herb Spiwak deprives the university and the county of the services of two dedicated health care leaders who have changed UCI from a bankrupt, disorganized entity hemorrhaging $12 million of red ink . . . to a much more respected institution which operates in the black,” said attorney Frank Quinlan of Newport Beach.

The firings come just a week after release of a scathing management audit by two University of San Diego law professors who found Piccione and Spiwak created a “climate of fear” at the medical center and retaliated against three whistle-blowers who tried to expose problems at the Center for Reproductive Health.

In addition to egg-stealing, Drs. Ricardo H. Asch, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio Stone are accused of research misconduct, insurance fraud and financial wrongdoing.

They have denied any knowing wrongdoing. So have Piccione and Spiwak, who testified before a state Senate panel last week and denied retaliating against any employees. “I think [Wilkening] is to be commended,” Regent Campbell said of Thursday’s firings. “I know she was urged by some of the regents to fire them last week, and fire those doctors, too. I assume that will be next.”

UC Irvine “is finally waking up. The whistle-blowers should be commended, not retaliated against,” Campbell said. “They should be reinstated . . . if they’d come back.” UC Regent William T. Bagley said the firings can be appealed to the regents.

“I can’t say if this is good, bad or indifferent,” he said. “But I have full confidence in the chancellor.’

Marilyn Killane, the first whistle-blower to report alleged financial improprieties and use of an unauthorized fertility drug at the clinic, said the news of the firings “absolutely made my day.”

“You know, all I can say is, I don’t want to see anybody lose their job, but in this particular case I think Orange County should raise a flag and maybe this [medical center] could be run like the rest of the state university system.”

She said she was angry not because of retaliation against her, but because of the way Piccione and Spiwak ran the medical center.

“The taxpayers are entitled to more than they were getting there, and certainly the patients were,” said Killane, who received more than $300,000 in a confidential settlement from UC Irvine.

Richard Butler, who served on a number of committees with Piccione and Spiwak, sympathized with their sudden ouster.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” he said. “I feel bad for both of them. They are both knowledgeable and intelligent individuals. . . . I can’t say I’m overly surprised by it, however.”

Butler praised Piccione for turning around the once financially troubled medical center.

“She has been a leader in this county,” said Butler. “She made hard decisions, and when you do those things, you don’t make a lot of friends. But those were decisions that had to be made.”

Times staff writers Nancy Wride and Martin Miller contributed to this report.