Judge Arraigned in Companion’s Death : Courts: Jurist pleads not guilty to manslaughter, drunk driving and hit-and-run charges related to a Feb. 21 accident in which a passenger in his car was killed.

A judge in Compton Municipal Court became a criminal defendant Tuesday when he was arraigned on charges that he killed his companion in a car crash while driving drunk, then left the scene.

Judge Albert J. Garcia, accompanied by his lawyers, Robin J. Yanes and Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the death of Josie Smith, 35, a mother of three who allegedly had a two-year romantic relationship with the judge. Garcia also pleaded not guilty to charges of driving under the influence and hit-and-run.

Authorities said Garcia left the scene of the Feb. 21 crash in Eagle Rock and waited nearly four hours before surrendering to police. Yanes has said the judge wandered away from the accident because he was in a state of shock.

The charges filed against Garcia are felonies; if convicted, he would face a maximum prison term of five years. The complaint against him contends that he was speeding in his Mercedes-Benz at the time of the accident.

At the brief hearing Tuesday, Los Angeles Municipal Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt set Garcia’s preliminary hearing for April 28.

Afterward, Garcia and his lawyers declined to answer questions.

Garcia has been on paid leave since his arrest, said Jerry L. Johnson, presiding judge of the Compton court.

If Garcia is ordered to stand trial, he automatically will be suspended with pay, Johnson said. If he is convicted of a felony, the state Constitution requires that he be removed from the bench.

Garcia, a native of East Los Angeles, graduated in 1976 from USC’s Law Center. He was appointed to the bench in 1986. Last year, he was the Compton court’s assistant presiding judge. He is unopposed for reelection in June.

Victoria Henley, chief counsel for the California Commission on Judicial Performance, said she does not know of any provision that would disqualify Garcia from reelection because charges are pending against him.

Before the judge’s arraignment Tuesday, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti told reporters that “it hurts” to see felony charges lodged against someone whose career was as promising as Garcia’s. Nevertheless, Garcetti said, his office will prosecute the jurist “vigorously.”

Smith’s sister, Angie Montes, who was at the hearing, said she was upset that the charges against Garcia were not more serious.

She contended that gross negligence should have been added to the manslaughter count because he allegedly was drunk at the time of the accident.

Montes said her sister had hoped to wed Garcia, who is married. Montes said she urged her sister to break off the relationship after an altercation between Garcia and Smith last summer in the judge’s chambers.

According to the police report of that incident, Smith and Garcia had argued during a lunch at a San Pedro restaurant, where they ordered seven glasses of wine between them. The report said each had flung a drink in the other’s face.

They then returned to the judge’s chamber, where they argued again. Smith told police that Garcia pushed her into a bookcase, grabbed her throat, put his fingers in her mouth and told her: “You’re messing with the wrong person.” He called court security officers to have her removed from the premises.

Smith filed a complaint with police but later dropped it.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Latin, who is prosecuting Garcia in the manslaughter case, declined to respond to Montes’ complaint that the charges filed against Garcia are too lenient.

Witnesses to the accident said Garcia’s car went out of control after leaving the Ventura Freeway near Colorado Boulevard, and then hit a post.

Smith, who authorities say was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle and died after landing on a concrete median.