Malibu Judge Arrested, Suspected of Drunk-Driving : Courts: Lawrence Mira fails a sobriety test after a one-car accident within his own jurisdiction, the CHP says.

A Malibu Municipal Court judge was arrested Wednesday night near Agoura Hills on suspicion of drunk driving after running his car into a dirt embankment, the California Highway Patrol said Friday.

Judge Lawrence Mira, 49, allegedly failed a field sobriety test after CHP officers responded to a one-car, non-injury accident at 11:10 p.m. on Cornell Road near Wagon Road in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County.

CHP spokesman Mike Werner said Mira, who was driving a yellow Nissan 300 ZX, was “very cooperative” and submitted to a blood alcohol test, the results of which were unavailable Friday.

Any charges against Mira, a former deputy district attorney, probably will not be filed for several weeks, as is customary in drunk-driving cases, said the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

The case presents a peculiar jurisdictional problem because the arrest occurred within territory covered by Mira’s court.

That means the matter probably will be heard in another of the 24 municipal courts in Los Angeles County, or another judge will be brought in to hear the case in Malibu, CHP and district attorney’s office spokesmen said.

Mira, the only Municipal Court judge in Malibu, was back on the bench Friday presiding over a murder case.

Court Administrator Robert Steiner said Mira did not wish to comment on the incident.

“He’s concerned about it, as you or I would be if it happened to us,” Steiner said.

Steiner added that Mira is making litigants in his court aware of his arrest, but that it is essentially business as usual.

Mira usually does not preside over drunk-driving and traffic-related cases, which often are handled by the court’s three commissioners, Steiner said.