Former Judge Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Sell Cocaine : Crime: Alan A. Plaia also agrees to cooperate in the prosecution of two suspected accomplices in alleged plot.

A former Orange County Municipal Court judge pleaded guilty Friday to a drug conspiracy charge stemming from an alleged plot to sell large amounts of cocaine to federal undercover agents.

Alan A. Plaia, 48, who has agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of two suspected accomplices, entered his plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. His plea came during a half-hour proceeding before U.S. District Court Judge Ronald W. Lew.

Conviction on the charge carries a sentence of five to 40 years in prison, plus a fine of up to $2 million. Plaia, who has remained in federal detention since his rearrest for fleeing to Montana in September, is scheduled to be sentenced March 23.

“I’d say it’s the end of a long and sad story of cocaine addiction for this former Orange County judge,” said Ralph Lochridge, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “The message of this case is that cocaine can affect not only inner-city youth but people who have had every advantage in life.”

Plaia practiced law in Newport Beach for 10 years before then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed him to Municipal Court in September, 1979. He resigned in 1983 to resume his law practice but occasionally filled in as a temporary judge until 1989, when he opened a jewelry store in Corona del Mar--to launder profits from drug transactions, according to his prosecutor.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David R. Garcia, the prosecutor, said two other felony counts filed against Plaia--possession of cocaine and distribution of the drug--will be dismissed upon successful completion of his agreement with the government.

Garcia said, however, that no promises related to sentencing have been made in exchange for Plaia’s cooperation and testimony against Grisha Moradian, 53, of Costa Mesa, and David Nicol, a former Surfside man serving a four-year term in federal prison on an unrelated drug conviction. They face trial in this case next year.

In an indictment returned in mid-September, Moradian, Nicol and Plaia were charged with plotting to sell large amounts of cocaine and arranging the sale of a single kilogram of the drug to undercover DEA agents.

According to the seven-page indictment, undercover informants and drug officers posing as potential customers repeatedly met with Plaia, Moradian and Nicol in Orange and Los Angeles counties from January, 1989, to February, 1990.

The transactions were allegedly arranged in upscale restaurants such as Tribeca and Da Vinci’s in Beverly Hills and Tutto Mare Ristorante in Newport Beach. Eventually, the government alleges, officers completed the sale of 1 kilogram of cocaine.

Investigators said Plaia introduced Moradian to them, and Nicol then agreed to provide loans to help pay for cocaine purchases. For his role in the sales, Plaia allegedly stood to earn $200 per kilogram.

Within a month of his indictment, Plaia fled to a luxury dude ranch near Bozeman, Mont., where his gregarious nature earned him the nickname Uncle Al. He was finally rearrested in October, after law enforcement authorities were tipped off that someone at the resort was trying to secure false identification.

Plaia was first arrested in Kona, Hawaii, in September, 1990, while trying to buy $24,000 worth of cocaine from undercover officers. He was allowed to remain free pending the outcome of that investigation. The current case in Los Angeles is not related to the Hawaii matter.

According to the DEA, Plaia told investigators that he had been a heavy cocaine user and started selling the drug in 1984 after becoming involved with a client who trafficked in cocaine.

Plaia admitted that he first sampled the drug more than 10 years ago in a Newport Beach restaurant, the DEA said.