Assault Charges Against Judge Are Reduced : Crime: Stanley Samuel Feinstein, 61, is accused of imprisoning a female attorney in his office and sexually molesting her.

A judge accused of slamming a female attorney against a wall and sexually molesting her in his Van Nuys chambers was ordered Thursday to stand trial on less serious charges than those of which he was originally accused.

The decision by Municipal Court Judge Mary E. Waters to reduce felony charges against Judge Stanley Samuel Feinstein, 61, came as a blow to prosecutors.

“I feel his conduct rose to the level of a felony violation,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Straughn said.

Feinstein, who is a worker’s compensation judge, had faced one felony count of false imprisonment and one felony count of sexual battery for allegedly fondling a 40-year-old attorney during a March 28 visit to his office.

But at a preliminary hearing, Judge Waters sided with defense attorneys who argued that Feinstein’s alleged conduct did not warrant felony charges. The judge subsequently ordered Feinstein to stand trial on misdemeanor charges of unlawful touching and false imprisonment.

Outside the courtroom, Philip D. Israels, an attorney representing Feinstein, maintained his client’s innocence.

“I think the real question is what was the real motive of the district attorney’s office to file two felony counts with such flimsy evidence,” Israels said.

According to the female attorney who was the lone witness to testify during Thursday’s preliminary hearing in downtown Los Angeles, the incident began after Feinstein invited her to his office at the State Office Building in the Van Nuys Government Center so that he could give her the next date of a lecture series they had both previously attended.

The woman testified that as she was about to leave, Feinstein told her to close the door because he had something else to tell her. She did and then he attacked her, she said.

“He came over and pushed his body up against mine,” she said visibly shaken. “It was like he slammed me up against the wall.”

She testified that she unsuccessfully tried to push him away with the palms of her hands.

“His left hand was inside my shirt and on my breast,” she said. “I couldn’t get out of there. His body was pushing me up against the wall.

“He lifted his right hand up my skirt and inside my panty hose and his finger was on my vagina,” she said. “I told him I gotta go. I gotta go.”

She testified that at that point, she was able to struggle free, grab her briefcase and ran out of the office. She said that during the assault Feinstein was also trying to kiss her and stick his tongue in her mouth.

Under cross-examination, the woman said that on the day of the alleged attack she had taken three different prescription drugs. The woman also testified she had met Feinstein on three previous occasions, including a November, 1993, incident when Feinstein complained he had a sore neck.

The woman--who was accompanied by her supervisor at the time of that incident--said she reached over and touched Feinstein’s neck to try to determine where the pain was, unaware until after the incident that Feinstein was a judge.

The woman said she had also met him at a February hearing she had before him and then again at a lecture series.

Later on the same day of the alleged attack, she said Feinstein approached her in the cafeteria and offered her some macaroon cookies.

“He said I hope I haven’t upset you,” she said.

She testified that she screamed back, “You freaked me out.”

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Following the woman’s testimony, Israels cited a case law to Waters that in order for Feinstein to be charged with a felony he would have had to exert more force to restrain the female attorney than he used when he allegedly pushed her against the wall.

Israels pointed to the lawyer’s own account of the incident when she testified that Feinstein used only his body to restrain her and that he never slapped, hit, scratched or tied her up.

Straughn disagreed, saying that Feinstein had committed sexual battery by pushing the female attorney up against the wall and fondling her breast and touching her vagina.

Israels also said several factors implied “some sort of consensual behavior” between Feinstein and the woman. He pointed out that she testified the doors to Feinstein’s office were unlocked, that she never told him “no” during the alleged attack and that afterward he told her to come back to his office later.

In the end, Waters sided with Israels and reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor count of unlawful touching.

In choosing to reduce a false imprisonment count to a misdemeanor, Waters noted that Feinstein appeared to have used no violence, menace, fraud or deceit during the alleged encounter.

Waters arraigned Feinstein on Thursday on the misdemeanor counts to which he pleaded not guilty. The next hearing on the case will be June 16.

If convicted, Feinstein faces a maximum of a year in jail for each of the misdemeanor counts, compared to a maximum four years in prison he would have faced on the sexual battery charge and three years on the charge of false imprisonment by violence.

Straughn said her office will now determine whether to appeal Waters’ decision.

State officials fired Feinstein from his job last month after he refused to cooperate with an internal investigation into the matter.

Israels described the firing as a miscarriage of justice.

“Judge Feinstein should still be on the bench today and he’s not because the investigation was totally shoddy,” Israels said.