By Richard Gaines

"I don't think that anybody has to be damaged by this," Ingolia is reported to have said. "You took testimony about facts, you carried out your duties with respect to what you were asked to do — used testimony — that testimony is wrong — you can come out with something, re-evaluate with new information, and with the respect to Coast Guard ALJ (administrative law judges), you say what you want by way of correction — if that happens, it aligns everything .... "

Swartwood, hired by then-Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to pick up the most troubling threads of the general investigation into possible miscarriages of law in the northeast region headquartered in Gloucester, held his ground.

"I am not going back to the first report — the secretary can do whatever — I won't do it," Swartwood is reported as saying after intense legal argument over the facts in the missteps against Yacubian, whose reparations award of $400,000 was $70,000 more than Swartwood recommended.