Former Judge Reportedly Won’t Be Tried in Sex Misconduct Case

The district attorney’s office will not file charges against former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George W. Trammell III, who retired Jan. 9 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, sources told The Times on Monday.

In a written opinion issued March 12 that has yet to be made public, prosecutors opted not to file charges against Trammell, two sources confirmed Monday, saying that the district attorney’s office believed the judge’s role in a relationship that developed last year with a Pifen Lo, 37--a former defendant in his courtroom-- did not fit the definition of any crime.

Trammell has characterized the relationship with Lo as amiable, according to authorities. It developed after he had sentenced her earlier in the year to probation in a complex case that stems from allegations of computer software piracy and kidnapping--and while her husband, convicted by a jury in the same case, was awaiting sentencing by Trammell and faced life in prison.

Lo alleges that the relationship turned sexual. In a court hearing Monday, she said that Trammell told her that if she wanted her husband, Ming Jin, 38, out of jail, she would “have to pay the price.”