A pair of former veteran homicide prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the city, claiming their employment was terminated because they were deemed to be too old.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court by Carlos Vega and Joseph Whitehead, claims that they were casualties of Krasner's push to reform the District Attorney's Office by filling the ranks with younger prosecutors.

During his first week as the city's district attorney, Krasner asked 30 veteran prosecutors to resign. The office faced staffing shortages for months until the office replaced its losses, in most cases with recruits fresh out of law school.

"Throughout the course of his campaign for DA, defendant Krasner made a series of public statements that reflected his strong bias against and stereotypical views of older prosecutors, and his unwavering preference and affinity for young prosecutors," the lawsuit said. "Defendant Krasner even declared publicly that if he were elected, he would fire older prosecutors and replace them with young prosecutors."

Vega and Whitehead were 61 and 64, respectively, when Krasner asked for the resignations Jan. 5, 2018, three days after he was sworn into office, the lawsuit alleged. The pair refused, and were told to either clear out voluntarily or be fired, according to the complaint.

"Plaintiffs refused to tender their resignations on January 5, 2018, they were instructed by the city to clear out their offices that day, thereby ending their careers with the city after a combined 63 years of loyal and dedicated service," the lawsuit said.

"After they were evicted by the city, plaintiffs were replaced by or had their cases reassigned to substantially younger, less experienced prosecutors who were not as qualified as plaintiffs," the lawsuit went on. "After assuming office, defendant Krasner continued to make public remarks that revealed his antipathy toward older prosecutors and his partiality for young prosecutors; and since taking office as district attorney, he has hired many young prosecutors, a large number of whom are recent law school graduates."

A spokeswoman for District Attorney's Office said the office does not comment on pending litigation.

The plaintiffs are represented by Sidney Gold and Robert Davitch.

In a joint statement, the lawyers said: "Mr. Whitehead and Mr. Vega are aware of negative public statements made by Mr. Krasner about the group of assistant district attorneys who were forced out or fired in January 2018. To the extent that these general comments by Mr. Krasner apply to Mr. Whitehead, Mr. Vega, or their job performance, ethics or integrity as prosecutors, they look forward to the opportunity to disprove the accusations and to show that they are pretexts for age discrimination."

Last year, Krasner's office branded the changes as necessary.

"Change is never easy, but DA Krasner was given a clear mandate from the voters for transformational change," former office spokesman Ben Waxman said in a 2018 statement to the press after the firings. "Today's actions are necessary to achieve that agenda. He looks forward to working as a team with the dedicated, talented, and hardworking employees of the DAO to make it the best prosecutorial office in the nation."

Sources told The Legal last year that the mass exodus in the early days of Krasner's administration caused disruption in the city's criminal courts and led to increased workloads for line prosecutors.

When relief came in autumn of 2018, it came in the form of new hires ranging from former Big Law lawyers to attorneys whose only prior experience came from interning. The hires came from law schools across the country, such as Harvard, the University of Michigan and Stanford, although 21 of the 38 new hires attended schools in Pennsylvania.

Several also had experience interning with prosecutors offices across the country, including U.S. attorney's offices in the District of Columbia and the Eastern District of New York, as well as the Bucks County District Attorney's Office and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Two of the new hires had previously also worked as paralegals for the office.

Some of the other new hires have had intern experience with defense organizations, including the Federal Community Defender Office in Pennsylvania and the Broward County Public Defender's Office.

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