Three weeks before a federal judge ordered an investigation into how police department attorneys lost crucial evidence in a civil rights lawsuit, Attorney General Peter Nickles hailed a central figure in the widening scandal as “an exemplary lawyer,” a letter obtained by The Examiner shows.

Terry Ryan has been general counsel of the D.C. police department for more than a decade. He’s under intense scrutiny after U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered a probe into how key police department records, subject to a subpoena from 400 some people suing the city, disappeared or were destroyed after being handed over to Ryan’s office. Nickles has promised the judge to get to the bottom of the case but has resisted pressure for an outside investigation.