No charges against Schwarzenegger

updated 8:38 a.m. ET Jan. 12, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be cited in connection with his recent motorcycle accident, the Los Angeles Police Department and City Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

"The LAPD does not issue a motorist a citation unless that person is observed by the officer committing a traffic violation," said police Officer Jason Lee, a department spokesman.

Frank Mateljan of the City Attorney's Office said prosecutors reviewed the police report on the matter, then sent it back to the LAPD, saying "it was their call whether or not to cite" the governor.

Schwarzenegger's aides said they planned to do their best to ensure their boss no longer rides motorcycles without the proper license.

The fact Schwarzenegger has been riding Harley-Davidsons over the roads of Pacific Palisades and Malibu Canyon for years without the required M1 license came out after an accident Sunday.

Riding a motorcycle with his 12-year-old son, Patrick, in a sidecar, Schwarzenegger hit a Volvo SUV turning out of a driveway on Mandeville Canyon Road in Brentwood. The boy was not hurt, but the governor needed 15 stitches in his upper lip.

The law requires an M1 license for drivers of two-wheel vehicles. Immediately after Sunday's accident, Department of Motor Vehicles officials said the governor was unlikely to be cited since the sidecar made the motorcycle a three-wheel vehicle.

But the incident made authorities aware that he lacked the motorcycle license, and police officials told the Los Angeles Times they would have a duty to stop him in the future if he failed to get one.

The governor's staff hopes it won't get that far.

"He won't ride until he has the proper endorsement," his spokeswoman, Margita Thompson, told The Times. "That's our goal."

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