Judge Faces Trial in Molestation Case : Courts: Charges have been reduced in case involving attorney who says Stanley Samuel Feinstein fondled her in his office.

A trial date was set Monday for a veteran worker’s compensation judge on misdemeanor charges of sexually molesting an attorney in his Van Nuys chambers, after another judge refused to reinstate felony charges against him.

Judge Stanley Samuel Feinstein, 61, faces one count each of unlawful touching and false imprisonment for allegedly fondling a 40-year-old attorney during a March 28 visit to his office.

The district attorney’s office originally charged Feinstein with felony counts of false imprisonment and sexual battery, but those charges were reduced to misdemeanors following a preliminary hearing.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito on Monday denied a prosecutor’s bid to reinstate the felony charges and set Aug. 5 as the date for Feinstein’s trial to start in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

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.

Last week, another judge ruled that the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office could continue to prosecute Feinstein, denying a motion by defense attorneys to remove the district attorney’s office from the case.

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

During the preliminary hearing, the female attorney testified that Feinstein had invited her to his office at the State Office Building in the Van Nuys Government Center so that he could tell her the date of a lecture.

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 and, after she did, he attacked her by slamming her body up against a wall and fondling her.