UCI employees who complained about illegal drug sales and unauthorized transfer of patients' eggs at the Center for Reproductive Health were pressured to keep quiet or lose their jobs, according to complaints contained in documents obtained by The Orange County Register.

Those documents and interviews this week with two UCI doctors also increase the evidence that the university knew about the egg-theft allegations earlier than the university has publicly acknowledged.

In one case, a senior administrator who reported the allegations was placed on involuntary leave nine days after making the formal complaint, according to the documents. In another, UCI Medical Center officials sought to fire an employee who alleged wrongdoings at the center, according to the documents.

Neither UCI Chancellor Laurel Wilkening nor Medical Center Executive Director Mary Piccione would comment Wednesday. Both women have denied repeated requests from the Register to discuss the center.

"Your story is wrong," said Mike Kolbenschlag, a public relations consultant hired to shape the university's response to the burgeoning problem. He refused to offer any specific explanation.

A letter obtained by the Register shows that Debra Krahel - then associate director of ambulatory care - was placed on leave after bringing forth a subordinate's complaints of wrongdoing to hospital officials in July.

In a July 18 letter to UCI auditor Bob Chatwin, Krahel said she was told repeatedly by Piccione, and Piccione's assistant Herb Spiwak, to keep quiet about problems at the center.

"Mary advised me that I had loose lips and should keep the facts about Reproductive Health to myself," Krahel wrote. Krahel's letter says the conversation occurred a week after she discussed the unapproved drug issue with Spiwak.

He did not return a phone call asking for a response to Krahel's letter.

Krahel - who is no longer employed by UCI - declined comment Wednesday and referred all inquiries to her attorney, Michael Maroko. Maroko said his client reached a settlement with the university, but declined to say what was settled since no suit was filed by Krahel. A confidentiality clause in the agreement prohibits Krahel from discussing the matter, he said.

Paul Najar, staff attorney for Chancellor Wilkening, said Wednesday that he was unable to locate a copy of Krahel's settlement agreement.

Records show that Krahel was placed on administrative leave July 27.

No university officials would comment on the two-month discrepancy between the date the whistle-blower's written complaint was made and the date the university says it first learned of the charges of unapproved egg transfers.

The letters, and interviews with two physicians, provide further evidence that University of California officials knew about allegations of unauthorized human egg transfers prior to September. That's the date given in the UC Regents suit against the center and its doctors: Ricardo Asch, Jose Balmaceda and Sergio Stone.

In the July 18 letter to the UCI auditor, Krahel said she was under pressure to fire an employee who reported that the center's doctors were selling fertility drugs that were not approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The letter says Krahel first raised that issue with Piccione and Spiwak in January.

The letter also says a clinic employee was fearful of being fired for bringing allegations forward.

Krahel's letter said her relationship with Piccione and Spiwak deteriorated when she continued to pursue the initial allegations, and that she was transferred to a position with less responsibility. At the close of her letter, she wrote: "I am fearful that this complaint will jeopardize my continued employment, yet I am compelled to go forward." Nine days later, she was placed on administrative leave.

According to a letter, UCI placed her on leave, citing "complaints" about "job performance."

The Center for Reproductive Health now is the focus of at least seven investigations into alleged research misconduct by the center's doctor, and misuse of human embryos by Asch, a pioneering fertility specialist.

The UC Board of Regents is suing Asch, who is the center's director, and his two partners, alleging among other things that they removed or destroyed records to hinder investigators.

UCI police are conducting a criminal investigation, assisted by the Orange County District Attorney's Office. The Medical Board of California also is investigating the doctors.

The doctors have denied hindering the university's investigation or committing any criminal wrongdoing. Asch - the doctor who performed the egg harvesting procedures - has specifically denied making an unapproved patient transfer of eggs.

The fertility clinic controversy erupted two weeks ago when the Register first reported that two women's eggs were taken and transferred as embryos without their consent to other patients, who later gave birth, according to interviews and medical logs.

In amendments to the May 25 lawsuit, the Regents say the university first learned in September that the university's doctors were accused of taking eggs without permission and implanting them as embryos in other patients. The patients whose eggs were taken told the Register they wanted their eggs fertilized and frozen for future use, and did not give informed consent to donate them.

The regents' suit says the university launched an investigation in October, and found "plausible evidence that (the center) had implanted human eggs into certain patients without the consent of the donor patients." The people appointed to investigate, however, could not prove or disprove the charges because the center's doctors allegedly did not make records available, the suit alleges.

Interviews with two doctors provide additional evidence that the university was aware of the egg allegations prior to September, as stated in the regents' suit.

Pediatrician Milton Schwarz and pediatric neurologist Ira Lott said that they first heard of the allegations on Aug. 11 during a lunch with a UCI "whistleblower." Schwarz said the whistleblower was Krahel.

Anyone who makes a complaint of government misconduct is considered a whistle-blower. State law is supposed to protect people who come forward with such information.

Both men confirmed the lunch meeting by checking their appointment calendars.

Lott, who is chairman of the pediatrics department at UCI, said the whistle-blower told him she had reported allegations of improprieties to the UCI chancellor's office and that an investigation was under way.

Lott said he called Wilkening's office, and was told that the chancellor was aware of the charges. He said he also called "the regents' attorney" and was told that the matter was being investigated. He would not provide the attorney's name, nor the name of the person he spoke with in the chancellor's office.

Based on his calls, Lott said, he was satisfied the matter was being investigated appropriately.

James E. Holst, general counsel for the UC Regents, was asked about the call Lott made to that office following the lunch.

"I have nothing that I am able to say," Holst said.

Schwarz said Krahel had been working with the doctors on a project, and had requested the lunch meeting.

"The reason she met with us is to tell us why she was leaving the university," Schwarz said. Krahel, he said, said she had been placed on leave and recounted the allegations she had reported to officials.

"She said there were improprieties in the way the eggs were being kept," Schwarz said. "She said she could only tell us a certain amount of information."

The doctor said his mouth went agape at the charges, and he figured if they were true, he would soon hear about it.

"I was confident the university would do whatever was appropriate, and I still think they will do whatever is appropriate," he said.

Don E. Carlson, pediatrics administrator for the medical center, said he also attended the August lunch meeting.

"I heard the same things that Dr. Schwarz and Dr. Lott heard," he said. "What Debra said I had no way of confirming. It was second hand."

In interviews last month, a former medical assistant said she was interviewed several times by university auditors as early as 1993. She said the auditors asked about allegations that patients were being made egg donors without their consent.