A federal judge on Friday threatened to send U.S. marshals into the Denver Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau to retrieve records of excessive-force complaints after city officials once again delayed complying with an order to turn them over.

Lawyers for James D. Moore, who claims he was wrongfully arrested and beaten in March 2008 by two Denver policemen, are seeking the records to prove the city tolerates a pattern of abuse by its officers.

“We are demanding the city and county of Denver comply with the law like any other defendant,” Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane said Friday. “I once had the marshals seize all the records in the Internal Affairs Bureau, and if I have to do this again in this case, I will.”

Moore’s attorney Darold Killmer complained that Assistant City Attorney Thomas Bigler only turned over a flash drive containing documents just before Friday’s hearing and that Bigler asked Killmer’s firm to pay copying fees to make CDs and DVDs of more city documents.

“Where does this payment from the other side come in?” Kane asked Bigler. “I have been here 33 years and never heard of it.”

The judge told Bigler to reproduce the records and keep track of the city’s expenses in case the city prevails in the lawsuit. At that point, city officials can seek to recover costs from Moore and his attorneys.

Kane has repeatedly ordered the city to turn over the records and said Friday that he was “on edge” about the pace. Last month, Kane threatened to fine Denver $5,000 a day if it didn’t make progress in producing the documents in another excessive-force case involving one of the same police officers Moore has accused. That case was settled out of court for $225,000.

Copying the records and blacking out the names of rape victims, confidential informants and private information about police officers is a “huge undertaking,” Bigler told the judge.

There are six full-time employees and two part-timers working on preparing more than 300,000 pages of documents every day, he said.

“I do not envy you in your position to herd the cats over there (at the city) but I won’t tolerate it,” Kane said. “Maybe they can use this case to put their files in order so people can understand them.”

Kane said redacting the documents to hide names of victims and confidential informants was a waste of time because the court expects to seal them from public view.

The next court date is Nov. 10.