Councilman Arrested on Drunk Charge : Crime: Hershel Keyser refused to take alcohol test, police say. He faces hearing on license suspension.

City Councilman Herschel Keyser was arrested and held overnight Saturday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after he refused to take a test to determine the amount of alcohol in his blood, Baldwin Park police said.

Arresting officers also seized Keyser’s driver’s license. Refusing to take a chemical test is grounds for license suspension, pending a hearing before a Department of Motor Vehicles magistrate.

Keyser, 60, who was arrested at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, was held in the Covina City Jail until 9:25 a.m. Sunday, police said.

According to a report filed by arresting officers, someone had called police about a suspicious man sitting in a truck in the parking lot of the Landmark Family Restaurant, 4291 Maine Ave. Officers responded and found Keyser sitting in his 1985 Dodge pickup truck.

“He said he was watching something,” said Baldwin Park Police Lt. Dan Higginbotham. “The officers detected the odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.

“The officers advised him to remain there” while they obtained further details on the report of a suspicious man, the lieutenant said, “but he started up his car again and drove out of the parking lot.”

The officers followed and arrested Keyser around the corner on Clark Street. At that point, Keyser lashed out at the arresting officers, Higginbotham said.

“He told one of the officers, ‘I don’t blame people for shooting at you. I think it should be declared open season on Baldwin Park police. I hope you get shot and killed tonight,’ ” Higginbotham said.

Though Keyser refused the chemical test, he failed a field sobriety test, police said.

Keyser did not return repeated phone calls from The Times. He has been on the council since November, 1989, when he won a special election to replace Richard Gibson who resigned to move out of the area. Keyser, whose term expires in April, is the author of a ballot initiative to allow legalized gambling in Baldwin Park.

The initiative, which will go before the voters in April, would let card clubs operate in the city.

Keyser has been a supporter of a proposed assessment tax for increased funds for the Baldwin Park Police Department, which also will be on the April ballot. Keyser wrote a rebuttal in the city’s sample ballot of another council member’s argument against the tax.

Police said they had no record of other arrests involving Keyser.

But Higginbotham said that once, in an apparent protest of parking enforcement, Keyser sought to pay an $18 parking citation with 1,800 pennies.

The payment was refused by the parking violations bureau, which accepts only checks, the lieutenant said.