Sisters Arrested in New Illegal Bail Bond Case

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

Teresa and Lisa Golt, 33, 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.

The Orange County and Los Angeles County charges are similar but pertain to unrelated incidents, Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said. The sisters were booked into the Central Women’s Jail in Santa Ana. Bail was set at $100,000 each, he said.

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

Teresa Golt has been reassigned to an administrative position in the LAPD while awaiting a disciplinary hearing on 10 internal charges filed with the Los Angeles 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.

The twins have been outspoken critics of the LAPD. Last year, Lisa Golt led a campaign to encourage officers to sign written instructions to bar Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks from attending their funerals if they died in the line of duty.