Ethics Panel Ends Probe of Chief Over Airline Tickets

Ruling that no public harm was done, a state ethics committee announced Tuesday that it has closed its investigation of allegations that Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams improperly accepted a pair of first-class airplane tickets 16 months ago to attend a conference in Europe.

Although the committee found that Williams violated state law when he accepted the tickets--worth about $11,000--it determined that the chief “attempted to comply with legal advice” from city officials and appeared to have been misled by organizers of the conference about who was paying for the tickets.

As a result of that mix-up and after consulting with officials with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, Williams agreed last month to reimburse a London company the full price of the air fare.

“We’re delighted with [the decision] and we feel it was the appropriate thing for the FPPC to do. This supports what the chief had been saying,” said attorney Ben Davidson, who represented Williams in the matter. “He tried to comply with the law. . . . It was an extremely technical situation.”

According to authorities, Williams violated a state ethics rule that prohibits elected or appointed officials from receiving gifts exceeding $280 in a year from an individual. Before accepting the tickets, Williams sought an opinion from the city’s Ethics Commission and was told that the gift limit did not apply if the travel expenses were being paid by a governmental or nonprofit agency.

Williams said he was told by the organizers of the conference that the air fare was being paid by the British Broadcasting Corp., which is a government agency. Later, Williams learned that the tickets were paid by NewsWorld Ltd., not the BBC.

State officials said that because NewsWorld--a private firm--did not appear to do business with Los Angeles and because Williams repaid the air fare, there was no public harm. They also noted state law was changed shortly after Williams accepted the tickets to permit “gifts such as the trip.”