Judge to Face Battery Charges Against Lawyer : Courts: Workers’ compensation jurist denies detaining and fondling an attorney. He claims the case is a setup because of his rulings.

A veteran state workers’ compensation judge surrendered Monday to face felony charges of false imprisonment and sexual battery after a lawyer told authorities he forcibly kissed and fondled her in his Van Nuys chambers.

Judge Stanley S. Feinstein, 61--who denies the charges--went to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys station with his lawyer Monday morning, after learning that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Feinstein was booked and released on $15,000 bail.

Feinstein, of Chatsworth, is scheduled to be arraigned April 25 on one felony count each of sexual battery by restraint and false imprisonment by violence, which could bring maximum prison terms of three and four years respectively, according to the district attorney’s office.

The judge has been put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation by the Division of Workers’ Compensation, a San Francisco-based state agency that oversees the appeals board, agency spokesman Richard Stephens said. He will not be allowed to hear cases, Stephens said.

In an interview with The Times, Feinstein said the charges are false, politically motivated and the result of one of the many controversial and emotionally charged workers’ compensation cases he has handled during more than two decades on the bench.

“I am innocent. I was set up. I will fight this to the end,” Feinstein said. “I have 25 years of distinguished service and am respected by my colleagues. And it is really a shame that they use this to destroy my career.”

A 40-year-old lawyer told police that when she visited the judge March 28 to discuss a legal matter, he prevented her from leaving by pushing her up against a wall, then grabbed her breast and kissed her, according to Lt. Richard Blankenship, head of detectives at the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division, which investigated the complaint.

“He touched her under her clothing in a sexual manner,” Blankenship said.

The woman went to police later that day and filed a complaint. According to sources close to the investigation, she later went back to visit the judge to confront him. In that talk, Feinstein confirmed what had happened in a way that could be used as evidence against him, according to sources close to the investigation.

Blankenship and officials in the district attorney’s office would not comment on what evidence has been gathered against the judge. “We did work to substantiate the allegations the victim made and were successful in doing that,” Blankenship said. “We presented the evidence to the district attorney and they filed.”

Feinstein offered no reason why the lawyer might have made such a complaint, but said her law firm has done business before him in the past.

He also said the sexual battery allegations could have been instigated by powerful lawyers angry at him for decisions he has made against people falsely claiming to have been injured in workers’ compensation cases.

“They are using me to send a message,” Feinstein said. “The message is: If you don’t do what we want in the workers’ compensation system, we will find you, and we will get you. There has been a history of attacks against workers’ compensation judges.”

Asked why this lawyer would file a complaint, Feinstein said: “You have to go into their minds and find out why they are doing this.”

The judge said news of his arrest has brought him support from judges and lawyers who work in the vast state building in Van Nuys.

Investigators said that the evidence against Feinstein is strong, and that the case has no political overtones.

According to the complaint, Feinstein unlawfully touched the victim while she was illegally restrained “for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification and sexual abuse.” Also, according to the complaint, Feinstein violated the victim’s personal liberty “by violence, menace, fraud and deceit.”

The woman also filed a complaint with the presiding judge of the workers’ compensation system, Stephens said.

“After the victim complained to (Feinstein’s) superiors, and since this is a serious allegation, we began our own investigation,” Stephens said. He added that the division was investigating the judge’s background.

In 1986, Feinstein received a “well qualified” rating from the State Bar Assn. as a judge when he ran unsuccessfully for a Superior Court position.