Brian D. Crahan, 53; Former Municipal Court Chief Judge

Brian D. Crahan, 53, former presiding judge of Los Angeles Municipal Court, died at his Los Angeles home Monday of kidney failure.

Some of the best-known figures in recent Southern California trial history passed through his courtroom, among them the defendants in the “Twilight Zone” case in 1984 and two reporters who refused to testify in the John Belushi death case. In 1975, he was part of a panel that ruled that Los Angeles County Marshal Timothy Sperl be fired.

In 1982, he recommended as presiding judge that a special court be set up to coordinate cases involving slumlords.

In 1983, he ruled that two doctors accused of killing a brain-damaged comatose patient by disconnecting him from life-support systems should not stand trial because they had not committed a crime. His ruling was later overturned.

He was the son of Dr. Marcus E. Crahan, the late Los Angeles County jail physician. He was a former division chief for the city attorney’s office, and was named to the Los Angeles bench in 1973 by Gov. Ronald Reagan. He was elected to two additional terms and also served temporary appointments on the Court of Appeal.

Crahan, a 1961 graduate of the UCLA School of Law, continued to serve on the bench until three months ago, when his health failed, said his brother, Marcus Crahan Jr. Other survivors include his wife, Michele, a daughter, Hilary, and another brother, Sean D. Crahan.