Former Fire Official to Get Drug Counseling : Hearing: A judge orders James J. Mullen, who retired after an arrest scandal, to enter a diversion program.

The San Fernando Valley’s former top-ranking fire official was ordered into a drug-diversion program Monday at a hearing on a charge he helped a prostitute buy drugs from an undercover police officer.

If former Assistant Fire Chief James J. Mullen is determined to be a good candidate for drug counseling after an interview with a probation officer, the misdemeanor charge against him will be dropped upon his completion of the counseling program, Deputy City Atty. Gary Geuss said.

Mullen, 53, who retired amid the scandal that followed his off-duty arrest Sept. 6 in Van Nuys, was eligible for the diversion program because he has no prior arrest record, Geuss said. He is scheduled to report back before Van Nuys Municipal Judge Alan Ellis on Dec. 19, when the judge can formally order counseling sessions on the basis of a probation report.

Geuss said it was routine to allow first-time offenders to enter diversion programs.

Mullen of Thousand Oaks spent 31 years with the Fire Department. He is charged with one count of solicitation of another to commit an offense--a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

He was charged several days after a woman who was riding with him in his car was arrested while attempting to buy rock cocaine from an undercover officer at Sepulveda and Roscoe boulevards--an area known for prostitution and drug dealing.

Police records said the woman, Lisa Andrews, 29, told officers that Mullen had picked her up at a nearby corner where she had been working as a prostitute.

Mullen was questioned and released, but the case was referred to the city attorney’s office. Police have said Mullen did not receive special treatment.

Andrews, who faces an unrelated prostitution charge, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to buy cocaine in the case involving Mullen.