Police Pack Meeting, Call on Keyser to Resign

More than 200 police officers and their supporters packed the City Council Chamber last week to denounce Councilman Herschel Keyser for allegedly threatening several officers and calling for an “open season” on police when he was arrested for drunk driving in January.

Other members of the council expressed support for the police at the meeting Wednesday night but made no comment on the officers’ demand that Keyser either resign or be restricted from taking part in police matters before the council.

Keyser, who did not attend the meeting and could not be reached for comment, raised the ire of the Police Department during his arrest Jan. 25 by allegedly unleashing an outburst of abusive comments aimed both at the arresting officers and the entire police force.

According to a police report, the councilman made obscene remarks and gestures, threatened one officer’s career and told other officers he hoped they would be shot and killed.

Keyser, a 60-year-old former maintenance worker for Mt. San Antonio College, has denied making the derogatory remarks.

Chris Carlos, president of the Baldwin Park Police Assn., asked Keyser to resign or at least be prohibited from making decisions about police matters in the future.

“Because of these irresponsible, biased expressions of hatred and contempt . . . the Baldwin Park Police Assn. strongly believes that Keyser cannot continue to govern,” Carlos said in a statement to the council.

Baldwin Park council members expressed their support and admiration for the Police Department at Wednesday’s meeting, but Carlos said he was disappointed that none of them had apologized immediately after Keyser’s arrest was made public last week.

“It didn’t seem like overwhelming support. It was too little, too late,” Carlos said.

Keyser, who won a November, 1989, special election for a term that expires this spring, filed papers Thursday morning to run for a second term in the April 14 election.

Detective Tom Steele told the council that Keyser has had a run-in with local law enforcement before. Last year, he alleged, officers stopped Keyser for being drunk in public and drove him home. There was no official report filed at that time, Steele said.

In the Jan. 25 incident, the owner of a Baldwin Park restaurant called police after Keyser was spotted sitting in the cab of his truck in the parking lot, the police report said.

The officers who responded to the call reportedly smelled alcohol on Keyser and asked him to stay in the truck while they called a supervisor, Steele said. But he said Keyser became agitated, made obscene remarks to the officers and drove away. He was arrested around the corner.

Keyser has admitted he had been drinking before the officers questioned him but has said he only drove off after the police told him to move on.

Carlos told the council Wednesday that Keyser tried to use his position as a councilman to intimidate the officers. Keyser told one officer during his booking, “You better start making out your resume because you’re going to need a new job,” Carlos said.

Keyser also accused Baldwin Park officers of selling drugs in the city, Carlos said, and remarked, “It should be declared open season on Baldwin Park police. I hope you get shot and killed tonight.”

Keyser has been charged with misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and obstructing a peace officer in the performance of duty.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Feb. 19, in Citrus Municipal Court.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 48 hours in jail and the suspension of his driver’s license for one year.