Companion of Top Fire Official Denies Prostitution Charge

An Encino woman charged with attempting to buy cocaine while accompanied by the San Fernando Valley’s top fire official was arraigned Thursday in Van Nuys Municipal Court on an earlier prostitution charge.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said no decision has been made on whether to charge L.A. Assistant Fire Chief James J. Mullen in a Sept. 6 incident.

Authorities allege that Lisa Louise Andrews, 29, was a passenger in Mullen’s car that evening when she tried to buy rock cocaine from an undercover police officer.

Andrews was arrested, but Mullen, 53, who was driving his 1991 Green Honda with a personalized plate reading DCHIF, was released. Police have denied that Mullen received preferential treatment, saying that typically only the person who offers money for drugs is arrested in such cases.

On Thursday, Andrews, also known as Lisa Tapar, pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution charge stemming from an Aug. 9 police undercover operation at Sepulveda and Burbank boulevards in Van Nuys. Police say Andrews offered to orally copulate an undercover police officer for $20.

Judge Alan E. Ellis set the prostitution case for trial Oct. 28. Andrews also faces a hearing that day for violating a two-year probation imposed Oct. 4, 1990, following her conviction for battery on a child for abusing her 7-year-old son, Christopher.

In the drug case, Martin J. Vranicar Jr., who supervises the city attorney’s Van Nuys office, said Thursday he is still investigating. Mullen, a 31-year department veteran who supervises about 250 firefighters serving the Valley, remains on active duty during the investigation, said Battalion Chief Dean Cathey.

According to a police report, Andrews told detectives after her Sept. 6 arrest that a man, later identified as Mullen, picked her up at Sepulveda Boulevard and Saticoy Street and that the two discussed having sex. She said Mullen suggested they buy some rock cocaine.

According to the report, the green Honda’s driver, who was identified in police reports only as a male, initially made eye contact with officers engaged in a drug-selling sting operation at Sepulveda and Roscoe boulevards.

The arrest report says that the female passenger asked, “You got a 20?” and the undercover officer replied, “Of what?”

“Rock,” said the female passenger, and the driver added, “Yah, rock.”

When Andrews, the passenger, showed $20 in cash to the officer, she was arrested, the report said.