Radio Host Gets Charges Reduced : Court: Ira Fistell and his wife should face misdemeanors in connection with fatal accident, jurist rules. Couple each could get one-year jail terms.

A judge reduced charges against radio talk show host Ira Fistell on Thursday for his involvement in a February car accident that left a teen-age girl dead.

After a three-hour preliminary hearing that stretched over two court days, Municipal Judge Elva Soper ruled that Fistell, 53, and his wife, Tonda, 54, should be charged with misdemeanors rather than felonies, saying their sentences would probably be the same either way if they are convicted.

Ira Fistell, a non-practicing lawyer who has an overnight show on KABC radio, is charged with leaving the scene of a two-car collision at Venice and Hauser boulevards that killed 15-year-old Janna Banks of Culver City. Tonda Fistell is accused of aiding and abetting her husband by telling police that she had been driving when she in fact arrived in a cab after the crash.

The Fistells, who are scheduled to return to court Sept. 8, each face a maximum sentence of one year in County Jail if convicted. Josh DeJean, 19, the driver of the car in which Banks was riding, faces misdemeanor charges of vehicular manslaughter and is due in court Sept. 7.

“I think he was gratified, he was pleased, and he was also very impressed with the fairness of Judge Soper,” Fistell’s attorney, Robert Schwartz, said of his client. “They’re extremely law-abiding people. They’re decent people. They have volunteered their time for numerous things over the years. The judge gave that some weight.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Morris said Soper had been fair, but still disagreed with her decision.

“Poor Janna Banks. She died at the scene. She was there laying on the sidewalk when the defendant left,” Morris said. “The whole time, Mr. Fistell never called the police, never called 911, never called an ambulance. The only call he made was to his wife, for her to come down and take the blame for him.”

According to police, DeJean was speeding down Venice at 55 m.p.h to 75 m.p.h. when he slammed into Fistell’s car, smashing it into a utility pole. Fistell, who was turning left from Venice onto Hauser, had apparently stopped in the middle of the intersection. He left about 30 minutes after the accident to go to the studio for his 11 p.m. broadcast.

Although investigators determined that Ira Fistell was not at fault for the accident, trouble began for him when he denied to police that he had been driving. Tonda Fistell insisted to authorities that she had been driving, police said, though several witnesses testified that they had seen her husband behind the wheel.

Ira Fistell’s driver’s license was expired at the time. “It’s a serious traffic collision, there was a lot of carnage at the scene, and Mr. Fistell made a cold, calculated decision to mislead everyone about what happened,” Morris said. “I thought it was a felony.”

But Schwartz said the district attorney’s office overcharged the Fistells because Ira Fistell is well-known, and because a young girl died in the incident.

“Would cameras have been parked out in front of the house of John Doe if he had been arrested for this offense? No way,” the defense attorney said. “In some cases, someone gets a break because they’re a celebrity . . . in this case, it was the opposite.”

Morris said “that had nothing to do with it.”

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What They Said

’ I think [Ira Fistel] was gratified, he was pleased, and he was also very impressed with the fairness of Judge Soper. They’re extremely law-abiding people. They’re decent people. They have volunteered their time for numerous things over the years. The judge gave that some weight. ‘

Robert Schwartz

Ira Fistel’s attorney

‘It’s a serious traffic collision, there was a lot of carnage at the scene, and Mr. Fistell made a cold, calculated decision to mislead everyone about what happened. I thought it was a felony. ‘

John Morris

Deputy district attorney