Fistell Charged in Fatal Collision : Crime: KABC talk show host and his wife are accused of leaving the scene of hit-and-run accident last month.

Radio talk show host Ira Fistell and his wife were charged Wednesday with the felony offense of leaving the scene of a fatal hit-and-run accident as a result of a traffic collision last month in which a Culver City teen-ager was killed, the district attorney’s office announced.

Fistell, 53, who has been free on bail but on leave from KABC since his arrest, allegedly left the crash by cab to report to work on time. His wife, Tonda, 54, was charged with the same crime for aiding and abetting the hit-and-run by informing police that she was the driver--even though it was her husband who was involved in the accident and she arrived at the scene in a cab.

County prosecutors referred the file of the second car’s driver, Josh DeJean, 19, to the city attorney’s office for consideration of possible misdemeanor charges because evidence indicates that he was driving at an excessive speed. DeJean suffered a broken bone in his neck in the collision. His passenger, Jaynna Banks, 16, was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, the Fistells’ family lawyer, Marc R. Staenberg, acknowledged that the couple “panicked” and made a “bad judgment call” because the talk show host’s driver’s license had expired.

“Not believing he was at fault in the accident, he and Tonda talked about her saying it was her driving,” Staenberg said. “She quickly recognized that that wasn’t a good idea and she corrected her statement to the police at the scene and told the police where he was.

“It was not at all that he was trying to get her to take the blame,” the lawyer said. “There was no blame as far as he was concerned.”

The fact that prosecutors did not file manslaughter charges against Fistell in the teen-ager’s death proves “the district attorney determined that Ira was not the cause of the accident,” Staenberg said.

“That’s what we’ve been saying all along and what Ira believed at the time.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Somes, who filed the charges, confirmed that “it’s our assessment the speed was the cause of the death of the other party, not Fistell’s actions.”

“In other words, it might be determined at some point he was civilly negligent, but we don’t look upon it criminally as being the cause of the death,” he said.

Investigators have estimated that DeJean may have been traveling 65 m.p.h. to 70 m.p.h. when the accident occurred.

Somes added that Fistell failed to inform anyone at the scene that he had been the driver of the car that collided with DeJean’s. To compound matters, the prosecutor said, Fistell’s wife sought to take the blame.

“The main problem is you’re supposed to identify yourself as the driver and we have no evidence that he ever did,” Somes said. “There were people there he could tell--the injured party, the paramedics assisting the injured and later, others.

“Our info is that (Tonda Fistell) came on the scene after the accident and she attempted to take the blame.”

The Fistells each face a maximum term of four years in state prison if convicted.

The collision, which Fistell did not mention on the air that night, occurred about an hour before his program began as he was making a left turn from Venice Boulevard onto Hauser Boulevard shortly after 10 p.m. on Feb. 16.

In a previous interview, Staenberg said Fistell stopped his car during the turn when he saw an auto speeding toward him erratically along Venice. The oncoming auto driven by DeJean grazed Fistell’s car and careened into a utility pole, the lawyer said. Fistell called his wife, who arrived in a taxi.

“He didn’t run, he pulled over, parked and spent over 30 minutes there,” Staenberg said Wednesday, noting that police still had not arrived when Fistell left. “It’s not your typical hit-and-run case.”

Fistell, arrested after he completed his shift broadcast that night, has yet to return to work because of the complications posed by the nature of his show, according to his lawyer.

“If you and I were in this situation, it might create a ripple in our respective communities--if we went back to work, we could do our jobs,” Staenberg said. “His job, I suppose, will at least initially include some discussion and response to all this and it’s an absolutely unique situation.

“We don’t want to have him saying anything either prejudicial to his case or counter to what the legal process is doing.”

KABC spokesman Bill Lennert said a decision on Fistell’s on-air status is possible in the next week. “We’re pleased that it was concluded that Ira was not responsible for the accident and he was not charged with manslaughter,” Lennert said.

Fistell, a non-practicing lawyer who exhibits an authoritative on-air style, is free on $20,000 bail and is due to be arraigned in Los Angeles Municipal Court on Friday. Tonda Fistell is due to surrender to authorities in coming days. Her recommended bail is $20,000.