Sentence Reduced for Singer’s Girlfriend : Courts: Judge acted because Rick James, convicted of more serious crimes, would have been released sooner.

VAN NUYS —  Expressing resentment that he was forced to do so by a possible scandal in the district attorney’s office, a judge Friday reduced from four years to two the prison sentence imposed on the girlfriend of funk singer Rick James for assaulting a woman during a drug party.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael R. Hoff originally sentenced Tanya Anne Hijazi, 23, after she pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting Mary Sauger in the St. James’s Club & Hotel in West Hollywood in 1992.

Hoff said he felt compelled to reduce the sentence, which would have kept Hijazi in custody until late 1995, because James, who was sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program, will probably be released this fall, although he was found guilty of more serious offenses than Hijazi for the same incidents.

“That’s intolerable,” Hoff said as he read a prepared statement. “It wouldn’t be fair to Ms. Hijazi or to our system of justice.”

Leonard B. Levine, Hijazi’s attorney, said that under the new sentence, he hopes to see her released in August.

The judge sentenced James last month to five years and four months in prison, but this term was stayed when he was admitted to the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco. If James successfully completes the 8 1/2-month treatment program, he will be released on parole.

James, the self-proclaimed “King of Funk” best known for the 1981 hit “Super Freak,” is engaged to Hijazi and they have a 21-month-old son.

Echoing author Charles Dickens, Hoff said recent events in the case have shown him “the best of times and the worst of times.”

James’ light sentence and the reduction of Hijazi’s prison term come in the wake of an investigation into what sources close to the case said are allegations of misconduct by an investigator in the district attorney’s office.

“I’m very troubled by this entire case, and in particular the recent events which have brought us here,” Hoff said, referring to what he called “the criminal investigation” and James’ “good fortune and luck.”

The probe is focusing on the possibility that the investigator, who did not work on the James case, provided drugs to Michelle Allen, one of three women who testified against James, according to sources close to the case. Allen, who was in custody on theft charges and was not named as a victim, testified to bolster the prosecution’s contention that James chronically abused women.

Hoff said he was also disappointed that a gag order he issued to protect the investigation has been violated, leading to news accounts of the alleged misconduct.

However, “there is a very bright side to this horrible situation,” Hoff said. The judge made it clear that the prosecutor in the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew Flier, acted with a “high degree of personal integrity and honesty” and in no way was accused of misconduct.

Prosecutors, saying they had a case fraught with difficulties and that the two victims did not want to testify again, agreed to the sentencing deal under which James is expected to be freed this year--even though he faced the possibility of life in prison if he were convicted in a second trial on charges the jury was unable to resolve during a first trial.

While the case has now been tainted by the investigation, Hoff reminded everyone that in “the simplest terms, this case is about cocaine, abuse and assaultive behavior toward women.”

On the day she and James were set to go on trial, Hijazi pleaded guilty to assault. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors dropped a dozen other charges that carried a potential life sentence.

Meanwhile, James went to trial and was convicted on Sept. 17 of assaulting and imprisoning Sauger, 35. While he was acquitted on several charges, the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of guilt on six charges, including two counts of torture.

As part of the deal that saw him go into a drug treatment program instead of prison, James also pleaded guilty of assaulting a second woman at his Hollywood Hills home in 1991.

“Truly and undoubtedly, his crimes were the result of his crack cocaine addiction,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen L. Cooley, who supervised the prosecution and defended the decision to support drug treatment over prison.

Defense attorney Levine characterized Hijazi as a victim who also received beatings from James.

“I’m glad that she’s not going to be incarcerated longer than Rick,” said Hijazi’s mother, Susanne Shapiro. “I think the judge was very fair,” she said. “It gives me a little more faith in the criminal justice system.”