Tavern Buddies of San Onofre Suspect Ante Up

The half-full collection jar sits behind the bar, growing slowly--a quarter here, a buck there. Sometimes a patron feels particularly generous and tosses in a five spot.

In a tavern where locals gather for weddings, wakes or just to chew on the issues of the day, it doesn’t strike anyone as odd that the Swallows Inn would be home base to the David Lee Reza Defense Fund.

A gun collector and a former employee at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, Reza was arrested last month on suspicion of threatening to kill two co-workers at the plant. He’s also accused of possessing cocaine and having a stockpile of illegal weapons--military-style guns, tear gas, rocket launchers, tracer ammunition and metal knuckles.

Though free on $100,000 bail, Reza has been ordered to stay away from the nuclear plant and Swallows, where, indeed, everyone seems to know his name.

The Swallows is that kind of place, a safe harbor for local characters. But in Reza, the tavern regulars have taken under wing a man facing six years in prison.

Located within eyeshot of San Juan’s historic mission, the Swallows is an unofficial town hall. The clientele includes city politicians, Harley bikers and local ranchers. The bar stools are usually filled by midmorning.

The tavern has a sawdust-covered, wood-plank floor with battered license plates and street signs on the cluttered walls and faded posters plastered to the ceiling.

In the 1950s, the City Council would routinely recess to the Swallows after finishing the town’s business. A scene from the Clint Eastwood movie “Heartbreak Ridge” was filmed in the tavern. Old-timers recall riding their horses through the bar when it was across the street and the town was a lot less crowded.

The Swallows’ controversies are as colorful as its patrons.

When the organizers of the Hairiest Man Contest suggested the Swallows was a little too honky-tonk for their annual event some years back, regulars erupted at the idea of having the contest moved to the nearby El Adobe restaurant.

As the bar’s owner put it, the idea went over like “prune juice in the beer.” The contest remained at the tavern and the organizer who proposed moving the event apologized for ever thinking it belonged anywhere but the Swallows.

So when the local gun collector was arrested on suspicion of making death threats, the collection jar came out. And, court costs being what they are, the tavern hosted a $15-a-plate fund-raiser on Reza’s behalf.

Two hundred people turned out and Reza got the court’s permission to attend the gathering, along with his lawyer, his girlfriend and his mother and father.

“The way our legal system works, it’s expensive whether you’re innocent or guilty,” said Steve Nordeck, surveying his crowded tavern on a recent morning. “When somebody’s down, I’d want people to step in and help, especially in this case, when that person is unjustly charged.”

“He’s been railroaded,” said Danny Perez, taking a swig from a long-neck bottle of beer. “They’re trying to make something out of nothing.”

Reza is family here. He was a bouncer at the tavern and has been a regular for a decade. He’s a member of the committee that puts on the town’s annual Swallows Day Parade. Allison Chard found it hard to believe he could be guilty.”When he was a bouncer here, he’d always walk me to my car,” said Chard, who had just finished her shift at a local hospital. “He was always very polite and kind. He once helped pay for my books while I was in nursing school.”

Ray Perez, a bartender, said most of his patrons are loyal to Reza because they could see themselves winding up in the same boat.

“A lot of people think this could have happened to anybody,” Perez said. “That’s what is so scary about this. All he wanted was a check from his bosses. Having a dispute with your boss is a long way from making national headlines.”

Reza was arrested after allegedly telling a former co-worker at the nuclear plant that he was “going to take my guns, go to San Onofre and whack some people.” Police said a search of Reza’s house and a rented storage facility turned up more than 280 weapons, some illegal assault weapons and other banned items.

Wyatt T. Hart, a San Juan Capistrano councilman and a former captain with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, is among Reza’s supporters, though he said he understands why his friend was arrested.

“I don’t think anybody pictures Dave as being a terrorist, and I think things were blown out of proportion,” said Hart. “However in light of 9/11, the Sheriff’s Department had to take immediate action, and I support what they did. I have full confidence that the criminal justice system will sort everything out.”