Sisters With LAPD Link Booked in Bail Dealings

A Los Angeles police officer and a former officer--twin sisters who already face criminal charges in that city--were arrested at their Garden Grove home Friday on suspicion of running a bail bond business without a license, sheriff’s officials said.

Teresa and Lisa Golt, 33, who have been outspoken critics of the Los Angeles Police Department, had been free on their own recognizance after their October arrest in Los Angeles on suspicion of making bail bonds without a license and using LAPD computers to get information for use in their business. At their arraignment, both pleaded not guilty.

Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said, after the 7:15 a.m. arrests Friday, that there may be more charges against the sisters. They were booked into the Central Women’s Jail in Santa Ana. Bail was set at $100,000 each, he said.

Bail bonders help defendants post bail to stay out of jail. The bonder accepts collateral such as a house or car and, in exchange, the defendant pays a reduced amount, typically 10% of the bail.

The Orange and Los Angeles county charges are similar but pertain to unrelated incidents, Amormino said.

An investigation that began in October is continuing, Amormino said in explaining why he could not release more information about Friday’s arrests.

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Teresa Golt has been reassigned to an administrative position in the LAPD while awaiting a disciplinary hearing on 10 internal charges filed with that city’s Police Commission in July. Allegations include working off duty as a bail bonder, acting as a bail agent without a proper license, making false and misleading statements to department supervisors and using department computer systems for personal reasons.

Lisa Golt was fired by the department in October 1999 after being found guilty of being involved in the bail bond business while off duty, using pepper spray on someone while off duty and failing to notify the department of use of force. She is appealing the dismissal.

Earlier in 1999, Lisa Golt had led a campaign to encourage other officers to sign written instructions to bar Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks from attending their funerals if they were killed in the line of duty.

Teresa Golt also was sharply critical of what she and some other officers viewed as Parks’ heavy-handed approach to discipline. She was later disciplined for her role in the anti-Parks campaign.