Jennifer Lentz Snyder

Los Angeles County

Public Integrity Division

Focus: Brown Act, criminal misconduct of public officials

The corruption scandal swirling around the city of Bell, along with the litigation that has resulted, has consumed much of Snyder's time.

The scandal broke in 2010 with published reports of exorbitant salaries paid to Bell city officials, leading to criminal charges including misappropriation of public funds filed against eight of them.

"It's an enormous undertaking and will continue to be an enormous undertaking," Snyder said. "We need to be careful and strategic, but complete in our analysis of what was involved criminally."

Snyder has been leading a team of lawyers in what she calls "pretrial posture."

"From a litigation standpoint, it's huge," she said, "and from an organizational standpoint, it's an exceptional challenge."

Her hope is that the public in general and elected officials in particular will be enlightened.

"Our goal is that the process itself will wake people up to the unintended consequences of benign neglect," Snyder said."

Historically public integrity matters haven't been on the judicial front burner, said Snyder, adding, "We've had to operate without the safety net of a lot of appellate decisions."

There's also a learning curve for prosecutors, Snyder said.

"Almost all of us have come from blood and guts backgrounds or are former gang prosecutors," she said. "There is a transition going from that kind of aggressive prosecution to this kind. But the mind set has to be the same - doing the right thing for the right reason."

One of the problems, Snyder said, is that public integrity cases are "labor intensive."

"Not all of the law is that clear," she said. "The same people who write the law, sometimes are the people we will target. It's a disincentive to clarify that which appears to be murky."

But, she added, "I genuinely believe that even the best of people can make bad choices at times."

Snyder, a former professional harpist, said she's starting to see a sea change in the way courts view public integrity cases.

"They've been so overwhelmed with violent cases, they had to get their minds around property rights," she said. "You've got to take these things seriously. If someone is stealing a Lexus from a dealer every week, that's not OK. Why should stealing money from the government be any different?"

- PAT BRODERICK