KENSINGTON, Md. — Lawyers for Lafayette Federal Credit Union have denied that the CU is using litigation to punish a former CEO, William Brooks, and his son, William Brooks Jr., for their opposition to the CU's aborted move to become a mutual bank.

They have also argued that the current problem with taking depositions has its roots with the Brookses not having been willing to cooperate previous with the discovery process and for not having complied with the CU's requests for confidentiality agreements.

"Defendant tactics are clear," Lafayette wrote in a brief addressing some of the deposition dispute. "After being told by the court that his discovery responses were evasive, delaying, avoiding, antagonizing and generally not complying with the letter and spirit of the discovery rules, and after the Court signed a an Order to Compel which Defendant essentially ignored, Defendant has continued and is in fact escalating that same type of behavior by doing it in such a way as to try to make it appear that Plaintiff is the one delaying discovery. Nothing could be further from the truth."