Solicitor Ken Smyth said the letter withdrawing complaints made by the McBrearty family to the Garda Complaints Board was drafted by Martin Giblin SC, a senior barrister retained to act on behalf of the family.
"It's not a letter I was happy sending," Mr Smyth told the tribunal. "I don't want to be too precious about this, but I didn't draft a word of that letter. I was a little bit embarrassed by it afterwards."
The letter refers to "Garda Síochána grudge houses" and the "National Bureau of Underworlders". Mr Smyth said "events conspired to cause delay", notably the ongoing District Court cases and the Carty inquiry into Garda corruption.
He said the family was frustrated when months earlier, the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew prosecutions in the District Court before lawyers could open up the "wider issue" of Garda harassment, which he said was the "holy grail" that would keep his clients out of prison and restore their reputation.
Tribunal barrister Anthony Barr said that a covering report from Chief Supt John Carey to the board painted a picture of the McBrearty family as "violent, nasty people", referring to alleged assaults, a death in Scotland, and allegations of extra-marital affairs. The report was prepared by Chief Supt Carey, who examined several of the complaints it received from the extended McBrearty family.
Bryan O'Brien, the now retired deputy chief executive of the board, said his impression at the time was that the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron which gardaí were investigating, was a murder investigation.
The tribunal has found Mr Barron died in a hit-and-run, and no member of the McBrearty family was involved. Family members claim they were harassed by gardaí after they were wrongly identified as murder suspects.
Mr O'Brien said he had met Mr McBrearty snr and his family at least two times while the board investigated their complaints.
"They were terribly upset about what they were outlining to me had happened to them. They had in their view been treated wrongly," he said.
Mr Barr said that "subject to correction, in not one of the complaints that he investigated, did Chief Supt Carey find in favour of the complainants or make any recommendation or offer an opinion adverse to the Garda where there was a context". Mr O'Brien said in preparing his own report on the complaints for the board, he concentrated on each individual case and the evidence before him.
The board considered Mr Carey's reports on the McBrearty affair in May 1999, but deferred a decision pending developments at District Court hearings in Co Donegal and from the internal Garda investigation headed by assistant commissioner Kevin Carty. The complaints were withdrawn in October 2001, before the board made any decisions.