Ex-Councilman Changes Plea, Is Sentenced for Drunk Driving

Herschel Keyser, a former Baldwin Park City Councilman who allegedly told arresting officers that he hoped they would get shot, has been placed on probation and fined for driving under the influence of alcohol and disturbing the peace.

Keyser, 61, pleaded guilty in Citrus Municipal Court Wednesday to two misdemeanor criminal counts arising from a Jan. 25, 1992, arrest.

Keyser originally intended to fight the charges. But just after the jury had been picked for his trial Wednesday, he dropped his not guilty plea and was sentenced to serve three years’ probation and fined $1,130.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Marco Saenz, said Keyser was also ordered to spend two days in jail but received credit for the time he spent incarcerated after his arrest, so he will not have to serve that part of the sentence.

Keyser is also required to complete a program for first-time drunk-driving offenders, which usually lasts 90 days, Saenz said.

The prosecutor said he did not know why Keyser changed his plea but said such a move “is not unusual.”

Reached by telephone at his home last week, Keyser did not answer a reporter’s questions, saying he could not hear because of the rain.

Publicity over the drunk-driving arrest--coupled with his failure to actively campaign for reelection, despite being on the ballot, and his controversial backing of a city initiative to allow legalized gambling--spelled the end of Keyser’s short, stormy political career last year.

The arrest occurred three months before the city’s April 14 elections. Baldwin Park officers, summoned by a report of a suspicious person, found Keyser sitting in his 1985 Dodge pickup truck at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday in the parking lot of a restaurant on Maine Avenue.

Officers smelled alcohol on the councilman’s breath. But Keyser ignored orders to remain in the lot and drove the truck around the corner, where he was stopped by police. Keyser later said he obeyed officers who, he said, had told him to leave. The councilman refused to take a test to determine the amount of alcohol in his blood and gave the officers a tongue-lashing that reportedly included obscenities, accusations of drug-dealing by officers and threats against one officer’s career.

“I don’t blame people for shooting at you,” Keyser reportedly said. “I think it should be declared open season on Baldwin Park police. I hope you get shot and killed tonight.”

The report of his comments sparked a demonstration the following month in the City Council chambers by more than 200 irate members of the Baldwin Park Police Officers Assn. and their supporters. The group called for Keyser’s resignation and asked him to abstain from voting on police-related matters.

Keyser later said that officers who participated in the City Council demonstration had conducted a “kangaroo court.” But the councilman later wrote a letter of apology.

Last April, Keyser accused police of harassing Baldwin Park residents and called for disbanding the police force and contracting with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department instead.

During his reelection bid in April, Keyser did not campaign for himself and refused to campaign for a ballot initiative he had proposed in 1991. That measure would have permitted gambling casinos to operate in the city. The new businesses would bolster the small town’s ailing economy and boost the city’s tax base, Keyser said when he proposed the idea.

But members of churches and community groups opposed to the gambling plan said they were delighted that Keyser had authored the initiative, because that connection helped secure the measure’s defeat.

Keyser, a former maintenance worker for Mt. San Antonio College, was elected to the council in November, 1989, in a special election to replace a resigning member.