From Judge to Defendant : Career Is Threatened by Fatal Accident That Went Unreported for 4 Hours

Albert Garcia was an East Los Angeles success story. He was raised in poverty by a single mother, worked his way through college and then law school and eventually was named a Municipal Court judge in Compton where he quickly earned a reputation for courtesy and impartiality.

But his saga of success was derailed Monday night on an Eagle Rock side street. He totaled his Mercedes-Benz, leaving his passenger dead--a 35-year-old woman who had told friends she hoped Garcia would divorce his wife and marry her.

Garcia wandered away from the accident and waited four hours to turn himself in. He was then booked on charges of suspected vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving.

Josie Smith, 35, died at the scene of the accident and leaves three children, ages 7, 12 and 14. She co-managed a popular Highland Park restaurant, founded by her parents 30 years ago, which has been deluged with condolence calls all week.

“The customers all loved her because she was so bubbly and full of life. . . . If anybody was ever down she would tell a joke and make them laugh,” said her sister, Angie Montes. “Her downfall was picking the wrong kind of man.”

Garcia’s once promising career is now in question. On Wednesday, he requested two weeks leave, but it is not clear if and when he will be returning to the bench.

He began seeing Smith about two years ago, Garcia’s friends say, when he was separated from his wife. After he tried to break up with Smith last summer, there was a fight in his chambers and Garcia called court security to have her removed. Smith later told Compton police that Garcia had assaulted her.

According to the police report, the two had a stormy lunch at a San Pedro restaurant. They ordered seven glasses of wine and, after an argument, each tossed a drink in the other’s face.

They then returned to the judge’s chambers and, according to the report, “had an argument over victim’s past relationship with a Los Angeles police officer, which produced a daughter. . . . Victim said Judge Garcia pushed her against book shelves . . . grabbed her by the throat, putting fingers in her mouth and said: ‘You’re messing with the wrong person.’ ”

After Compton police filed the report, Smith dropped her complaint and prosecutors refused to file charges, Lt. Joe Flores said.

“I told her she should file charges against him, and she agreed but later changed her mind,” Montes said. “She’d say: ‘I can’t do that to his career. It would ruin him.’ She just cared for him too much.”

The two ended up reconciling and had been seeing each other steadily since the incident, her sister said. But the relationship continued to be tumultuous, Montes said.

“I had no respect for the man,” said Montes, who co-managed the El Arco Iris restaurant with her sister. “He didn’t respect his wife. He didn’t respect my sister. He didn’t respect himself.”

But attorneys were impressed with Garcia because of his conscientious approach, said Craig Hum, a deputy district attorney who has argued a number of cases before Garcia. Hum thought so highly of the judge that he asked Garcia to swear him in after he passed the Hawaii Bar exam. Hum was extremely surprised when he heard that the judge had been involved in an altercation with a woman in his chambers last August.

“He was incredibly fair . . . that’s what I was impressed with,” Hum said.

Garcia rarely missed civic functions or social gatherings with the South Central Bar Assn., friends said. But Garcia, who presided over criminal preliminary hearings and has been a judge in Compton for seven years, always appeared alone.

If Garcia’s case reaches the stage of a preliminary hearing and he is charged with a felony, he will be suspended, without loss of salary, while the case is pending, according to officials at the state Commission on Judicial Performance. If he is convicted and the conviction stands under appeal, Garcia will be removed from the bench.

The night of the accident, Garcia and Smith had dinner and drinks at a Pasadena restaurant, Montes said, and were probably on their way back to Smith’s apartment. Montes plans to raise Smith’s two older children and the younger one will live with her father.

Garcia left the accident scene and waited so long before contacting police because “he went into shock . . . he was totally out of it,” said his attorney, Robin J. Yanes.

“He saw her lying in the street and her head was in pieces . . . it was a horrendous scene,” Yanes said. “He went into a state of shock and just wandered off.”

After about an hour, Garcia called a friend from a phone booth but was incoherent and “could only say: ‘Help me,’ over and over,” Yanes said. The friend “got out of him what happened” and they went to the LAPD’s Northeast station, where Garcia turned himself in.

Garcia, who grew up in East Los Angeles, was raised by his mother, who worked two jobs as a domestic and a file clerk, after his father died when he was young. His path to the bench had a number of unusual stops along the way. He attended four colleges before graduating from Cal State Los Angeles with a degree in music.

He pursued his interest in music, playing the trumpet in Latin nightclubs, then attended graduate school in library science at UC Berkeley. He worked as a librarian before enrolling in law school at the University of Illinois.

He transferred to USC and received his law degree in 1976. After eight years in his own practice, he was appointed to the bench by then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

Garcia is up for reelection in June but is unopposed.

Times correspondent Emily Adams contributed to this story.