The state of Oregon will pay an outside attorney to defend Deschutes County District Attorney Patrick Flaherty against a lawsuit filed by prosecutors he fired in January, the Department of Justice confirmed on Friday.

The state will only pay to defend Flaherty’s conduct since he took office Jan. 1, although his actions last year are also at the heart of the lawsuit. For example, the former deputy district attorneys allege that Flaherty interfered with their employment last year when he successfully pushed for county commissioners to delay their vote on a contract with the prosecutors’ union.

The Department of Justice had already stated in a letter to a Deschutes County attorney last fall that it would not defend Flaherty’s actions as a private citizen.

After the lawsuit was filed in April, the department undertook a routine investigation into whether Flaherty, who is a state employee, was eligible for state legal defense.

The department will hire an outside attorney because employees at the Department of Justice could be called as witnesses, Department of Justice spokesman Tony Green wrote in an e-mail Friday.

“The representation will not be DOJ because we could end up as a witness involving (Flaherty’s) conduct prior to taking office,” Green wrote.

In a court document, the fired prosecutors claim that Sean Riddell, chief of the department’s criminal justice division, told Flaherty not to fire the deputy district attorneys last fall.

The exchange allegedly took place during a meeting for newly elected district attorneys from around the state. Green declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Flaherty did not return a call for comment Friday.

On April 1, former deputy district attorneys Brentley Foster, Jody Vaughan and Phil Duong filed a lawsuit against Flaherty and county officials, seeking reinstatement and roughly $22.5 million in punitive, economic and other damages.

The former prosecutors allege wrongful discharge, sex discrimination, unfair labor practices and violations of their First Amendment rights to free speech and association.

Publicly, Flaherty took the oath of office Jan. 3. However, Flaherty was privately sworn into office Jan. 1, by Deschutes County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Michael Sullivan, said Court Administrator Ernest Mazorol.

Former District Attorney Mike Dugan created a brief vacancy when he resigned effective at midnight Dec. 31 in order to receive his pension a month sooner, Dugan said.

Immediately after Flaherty’s public swearing-in ceremony Jan. 3, he fired Foster, Vaughan, Duong and two other deputy district attorneys.