Wedding Party Packs Powerful Punch--With 6 Arrests

Wedding parties and high emotions go together like white cake and white frosting, but most don’t come with a casualty list.

Police said they were amazed Wednesday when more than 150 well-dressed guests brawled amid their Jaguars and Mercedes-Benzes in a restaurant parking lot that abuts the Monrovia police station.

About 25 sheriff’s deputies and Monrovia and Arcadia police were called at 12:35 a.m. to break up the wedding-night melee.

“Officers saw men and women hitting each other and people walking around with visible injuries,” said Monrovia Police Chief Joseph Santoro. “This wasn’t a pushing match; this was a drag-out fight.”

Six men were arrested. Five people were treated on the scene by paramedics. Another 10 who were injured left for treatment elsewhere, Santoro said. The brawlers used “everything from bottles and glasses to their fists,” he said.

The dispute began in Le Papillon restaurant at 406 S. Myrtle Ave., where guests assembled at 9 p.m. for a wedding and dinner. Witnesses refused to tell police the names of the bride and groom.

About midnight, two 12-year-old boys had a spat--nobody seems to know why--that their elders continued in the parking lot behind the restaurant.

Many of the guests were married couples in their 50s and 60s, said restaurant owner Andre Hindoyan. The fight was “the last thing you would expect from people in those Jaguars and designer clothes,” he said.

Police arrested John Lopez, 42, and John Demetro, 22, both of Venice; Jake Zachery, 26, of Costa Mesa; James Konoby, 33, of Anaheim; Joseph Alvarez, 47, of Santa Monica, and Dino Perregaux, 20, of Los Angeles.

All were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Perregaux and Zachery were also accused of resisting arrest. The men were freed Wednesday on bail ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, Santoro said.