Ex-Fire Official Charged With Helping to Buy Drugs

A criminal misdemeanor charge was filed Wednesday against the San Fernando Valley’s former top-ranking fire official for allegedly trying to help a suspected prostitute buy cocaine from undercover Los Angeles police.

Former Assistant Fire Chief James J. Mullen Jr., who retired Monday after 31 years in the department, was charged with one count of enticing another person to commit an offense--in this case, to purchase drugs. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Mullen could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, where Mullen rose from a rookie firefighter to become one of only three men to head the department’s three geographic divisions, declined comment.

Mullen, 53, retired after revelations that he was under investigation by the department and the city attorney. During the off-duty incident on Sept. 6, Mullen allegedly picked up Lisa Andrews of Encino at about 6:40 p.m. in his green Honda Accord with a license plate reading DCHIF.

A police complaint released Wednesday alleges that he suggested where the two could buy rock cocaine, participated in her conversation with undercover officers and supplied $20 for the illegal drug.

The report states that Mullen pulled into a parking lot at the corner of Sepulveda and Roscoe boulevards in Van Nuys--an area known for prostitution and drug dealing--made eye contact with an undercover officer and rolled down his window. Andrews, 29, then allegedly asked the officer, “You got a 20?”

“Of what?” the officer replied.

“Rock,” Andrews said, using the street term for rock cocaine.

“Yeah, rock,” interjected Mullen.

Andrews, who faces an unrelated prostitution charge, then displayed the money to a second officer and was immediately arrested.

According to the police complaint, Andrews told officers that Mullen had picked her up at the corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and Saticoy Street, where she said she had been working as a prostitute, and that “he seemed used to picking up girls.”

Mullen--whom police identified at the scene as an assistant fire chief--was questioned and released, according to the police complaint. Police officials have said he received no special treatment, but was let go because he did not personally offer any cash to the officers.

The arresting officer believed at the time “that she only had a violation on the passenger and not on the driver,” according to the complaint police filed with the city attorney’s office.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Martin Pomeroy, who supervises narcotics investigations, said it is not unusual for officers working a fast-paced undercover sting operation to release some suspects and later recommend that criminal charged be filed.

Mullen is scheduled for arraignment Oct. 29 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.