FORT WORTH, Texas -The runner-up on the original “American Idol” competition was ticketed by Grand Prairie police Saturday afternoon after witnesses said he almost ran over a young girl with a personal watercraft at Joe Pool Lake.

Justin Guarini was with contest winner Kelly Clarkson, of Burleson, Texas, when he was cited for unsafe boat operation at Loyd Park on the west side of the lake about 7 p.m., said Sgt. Chris Chopin, lake patrol supervisor.

Chopin said that Guarini and Clarkson “didn’t understand what the laws were.”

The offense is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and a maximum 180 days in jail, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Web site.

Calls to publicists representing Guarini and Clarkson were not returned.

Clarkson, 21, and Guarini, 24, became celebrities last summer when they were finalists on the Fox television show, a reality series that aims to discover pop stars. Viewers voted Clarkson the winner, and she received a $1 million record deal.

The two are starring in the recently released romantic comedy “From Justin to Kelly.”

Clint Heizer, the father of the 5-year-old girl who Guarini allegedly almost hit, said Clarkson and Guarini had been taking turns riding the watercraft with about five friends for most of the day Saturday.

A former fan of the show, Heizer said he didn’t realize who Guarini and Clarkson were until Guarini ran the watercraft up on shore a good distance and stopped a few feet short of his daughter, Allison.

“I was in Justin’s face talking to him about what he had just done, and that’s when I realized who he was,” said Heizer, a city marshal in North Richland Hills.

Heizer said Guarini rolled off the moving watercraft before it stopped and ran away laughing.

“If they were just apologetic, everything would have been all right,” said Heizer, who lives in Fort Worth.

Heizer said Guarini and Clarkson were rude and confrontational to his party and the police and Coast Guard auxillarymen who arrived on the scene.

Chopin was more judicious.

“I wouldn’t say confrontational,” he said. “But they were inquisitive, to say the least, about why we were talking to them.”

The singers and their friends were kicked out of Loyd Park after the incident, but not before they signed autographs on the way out, police and a park official said.

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(c) 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-07-01-03 1829EDT

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