Man Pleads Innocent in Wounding of Officer : Law enforcement: Two girls, ages 13 and 14, face similar charges in Juvenile Court. The injured policewoman has shown improvement.

A Highland Park man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to assault and robbery charges in the shooting of a Los Angeles police officer who was critically wounded during a gun battle in which the defendant’s companion was killed.

Arvin Peter Mani, 20, was arraigned in Newhall Municipal Court in Santa Clarita. Judge Alan S. Rosenfield set bail at $1 million, and scheduled a preliminary hearing for June 21.

Two other suspects, 13- and 14-year-old girls, were to be arraigned today in the Northeast Juvenile Justice Center in Los Angeles. They face similar charges to Mani--conspiracy to commit robbery, attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted grand theft of the police officer’s auto with a firearm--prosecutors said.

All three Highland Park residents, alleged members of a gang called the Highland Park Crazies, are in the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Stacy Lim, the 27-year-old policewoman, remained in guarded condition at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia but showed signs of steady improvement Tuesday, said Lt. Dave Waterman of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast Division, where she is assigned.

Waterman said Lim was conscious, breathing without a respirator and communicating in sign language with her sister.

Mani’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Alan Budde, said he would not post bail. He declined further comment.

If convicted on all four felony charges, Mani would face a maximum sentence of seven years, four months in state prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan M. Speer said.

The suspects allegedly followed the policewoman home on the freeway because they liked the custom rims on her Ford Bronco, detectives said.

Charges of murder, involving the death of 16-year-old Joel Garcia Valenzuela of Highland Park, and attempted murder, for the wounding of Lim, were not filed against any of the three suspects because detectives have determined that it was Valenzuela who provoked the fatal gun battle outside Lim’s Santa Clarita home, authorities said.

Speer said Tuesday that Mani was sitting in the youths’ car during the confrontation early Saturday. She said it was Valenzuela and the 13-year-old girl who got out of their auto after Lim parked her truck.

Speer also said Tuesday that a fifth youth, the 12-year-old brother of the 14-year-old girl, was present during the incident. He was released without charges after detectives determined he was accompanying his sister and not part of a plan to steal cars, she said.