Judge Removes Self From Case of Deputy Accused of Sex With Inmate

A Superior Court judge granted a defense request Wednesday and removed herself from a case involving a sheriff’s deputy accused of having sex with a female jail inmate in Van Nuys.

Judge Mary Ann Murphy removed herself from the case after Paul Kinion, an attorney representing defendant Larry Fraize, 43, filed a motion to disqualify her from hearing the case.

Kinion said he did not believe the judge would give Fraize a fair trial. Murphy had refused to dismiss charges against Fraize during a December hearing.

A former bailiff in Van Nuys Superior Court, Fraize was videotaped performing a sex act with a jail inmate during a sting operation last May, authorities allege. He was also taped watching two female inmates having sex.

Fraize was charged with engaging in a consensual sex act with an inmate and with aiding and abetting sexual contact between two other inmates.

Kinion contends that his client could not be prosecuted for engaging in a consensual sex act because the law he stands accused of violating applies only to inmates.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Yochelson maintains that Fraize can be prosecuted under the law as an accomplice to the sex acts.

Murphy reassigned the case to Superior Court Judge Judy Champagne. A pretrial hearing in Champagne’s courtroom has been scheduled for March 3.

Fraize, who has been suspended, could be sentenced to two years in prison if he is convicted.