Arbitrator Backs Porat’s Accuser : * Litigation: Non-binding recommendation says Mozart Camerata founder should pay ex-fiancee $120,000 in alleged assault.

The founder of the Irvine-based Mozart Camerata chamber orchestra should pay $120,000 to a woman who alleges that he physically assaulted her, according to an Orange County Superior Court arbitrator.

Arbitrator Peter V. Nix further recommended that a cross complaint filed by orchestra founder Ami Porat be dismissed. Porat, according to his lawyer, has said he struck Karen Shenker in self-defense and that she is trying to defame him.

But Nix, whose non-binding recommendations were issued last week, found that Porat, 45, “committed an assault and battery” on Shenker and that “as a direct result of this beating, (she) suffered injuries both physical and emotional.”

Porat’s attorney, Harvey E. Berman, dismissed Nix’s findings Tuesday as “meaningless.” Berman said he plans to petition the court within the next few days to reject the arbitrator’s decisions and to schedule a trial date. In that case, Nix’s decisions would automatically become invalid.

Shenker’s attorney, F. Thomas Eck IV, said he expects Porat to reject the Nix decisions but believes “a jury will see the case just as the arbitrator did.”

Shenker, of Mission Viejo, who once was engaged to Porat, alleges that he assaulted her in the parking lot of her apartment complex on Dec. 21, 1988.

“She was beat up pretty badly,” Eck said. Since the alleged attack, Eck added, Shenker has spent more than $20,000 on medical expenses, has experienced neck pains and has undergone several root-canal operations because of blows to the left side of her face.

Shenker could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Berman says that Porat and Shenker were driving to a concert when they got into an argument and that Shenker grabbed the steering wheel as Porat was driving, causing him to “backhand” her as a reflex and to regain control of the wheel.

Berman said his client is “victim of a woman’s scorn. She’s trying to ruin his reputation because he had the temerity to break off their engagement.”

Shenker says she was the one who called off the engagement because of Porat’s physical abuse, Eck said.

In denying the cross-complaint, Nix said Porat “introduced no evidence which would have justified his conduct.” Berman said he “didn’t spend much time” presenting evidence at the arbitration hearing because he expected that the case would go to trial.