Misconduct Charge Idles LAPD Ticket Champ

More than a few motorists have found themselves in hot water after speeding past the radar gun of Officer Kelly (Clickety) Klatt, the Los Angeles Police Department’s most prolific ticket writer. Now, however, Klatt has landed in some hot water of his own.

He and his partner, Officer John Nichols, have been relieved of duty without pay amid allegations that they were sipping champagne and soaking nude with a 24-year-old woman in Nichols’ hot tub when they were supposed to be out on patrol last summer.

The woman, Laura Bisho of Torrance, said that she participated in two evening soaking sessions at Nichols’ house which were arranged after she persuaded Klatt not to give her a speeding ticket on July 30, 1986.

“Kelly said, ‘I guess I won’t give you a ticket because you’re nice,’ ” Bisho said. “I was wearing a really short dress . . .”

Bisho said that another woman, a friend whom she would identify only as Diane, also attended one of the hot-tubbing sessions with the two motorcycle officers.

Bisho said she later had a long-term relationship with Nichols, 35, and raised the allegations of on-duty impropriety in March after discovering that he had been “two-timing me” with a Police Department secretary whom Nichols eventually married.

On Tuesday, Nichols said he had been ordered by his captain at the Harbor Area station not to publicly discuss the case, and declined to address Bisho’s accusations except to say, “It’s a total lie.” He denied having a relationship with Bisho, who says she is an electronics engineer.

Klatt, 34, was in San Diego with his wife Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Klatt attracted national attention in January after The Times reported he had purchased his own radar gun and ticketed 435 traffic violators during a 19-day work period--more than any other Los Angeles police officer. Last September, Klatt and Nichols established another Police Department benchmark: In a six-hour period near the USC campus, each handed out 61 jaywalking tickets.

At the time, the two officers complained good-naturedly that they were so busy they never took coffee breaks.

An internal department report obtained by The Times shows that during the investigation of Bisho’s allegations, she was given a polygraph examination by police experts and that some of her answers were deemed “deceptive.”

Nevertheless, department officials Monday formally accused Klatt and Nichols of five counts each of misconduct. The charges include converting on-duty contacts into off-duty relationships with Bisho and her friend, and of having sex with the two women while on the job.

Board of Rights Hearing

Acting Chief Robert L. Vernon ordered Klatt and Nichols to appear before a departmental Board of Rights, which can exonerate them with full back pay after hearing testimony in the case or recommend punishment including firing.

The hearing is expected to be scheduled this month.

Sgt. Harry B. Ryon, a police defense representative who will act as counsel to Nichols at the hearing, said that after reviewing the case, he was confident that both officers would be cleared of any wrongdoing. He said Bisho has a reputation among officers as a “cop groupie and a pest.”

“This all appears to be the result of the overactive, fantasy world of her imagination,” Ryon said.