Fired Nuclear Worker Held in Threats

A fired worker at the San Onofre nuclear power plant who has a history of disputes with his bosses has been arrested for allegedly threatening to draw on his cache of weapons to attack former co-workers at the facility.

When they arrested David L. Reza, 44, on Tuesday evening, Orange County sheriff’s deputies uncovered more than 250 weapons--including antique rifles and empty hand grenades--as well as 5,000 rounds of ammunition at his Laguna Niguel home and a storage locker he rented. Authorities said they also found a small amount of cocaine.

While Reza’s girlfriend and others said he was a known collector who would “talk your ear off about guns and his collection,” sheriff’s officials said the weaponry included an illegal light anti-tank rocket launcher and at least seven other illegal weapons.

The investigation was sparked by an alleged threat made Friday by Reza in a telephone conversation with a person investigators would identify only as an employee of Southern California Edison, which operates the plant.

Reza was quoted as saying: “They have taken my job. They have taken my life. I don’t have anything to lose. I’m going to take my guns, go to San Onofre and whack a bunch of people.”

The employee reported the conversation to Edison officials, who alerted sheriff’s deputies Tuesday.

“We considered it a realistic threat,” Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo said. “He may be just an avid gun collector. It may be that he was a despondent, unemployed gun collector. But that’s not the point. Right now is not the time to be making threats against anyone.”

Reza did not threaten the nuclear facility itself and it was never in jeopardy, officials said. He was being held without bail Wednesday in the Orange County Men’s Central Jail on suspicion of making terrorist threats and suspected possession of illegal narcotics, a concealed weapon and an assault weapon.

“Any time you have a terrorist threat, you have to see if it could be carried out,” sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said. “With over 250 weapons and ammo and four inert hand grenades that he could easily arm, he definitely had the ability to carry out the threat.”

Two Orange County sheriff’s deputies were overcome by noxious yellow vapor when they opened what they believed was an ammunition canister at the storage garage in San Juan Capistrano. Instead, it held CS powder, an ingredient in a compound similar to tear gas, Jaramillo said. The deputies, who were not identified, were treated and released from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

Friends described Reza as an affable, chatty man with a penchant for firearms and a history of butting heads with his supervisors at San Onofre, where he worked for 17 years--most recently as a boiler-condenser mechanic.

His girlfriend, Kristi Mattauch, denied that Reza threatened any serious harm to anyone. She said his weapons collection consists mostly of antiques, some dating to 1819, and that his interest began when as a 10-year-old he found an old BB gun behind the baseboards of his family’s home.

None of Reza’s weapons were illegal assault rifles, and the grenades were inoperable, Mattauch said. “They are toys,” she said. “I’ve seen them. They’re harmless.”

Reza’s collections extended beyond guns, she said. The 10-foot by 20-foot storage unit also held a vintage cavalry uniform and a large collection of Barbie dolls.

Reza was a fixture at San Juan Capistrano’s Swallows Day Parade, during which he would dress up in period costume and carry some of his prized Colt sidearms worth as much as $25,000 each.

“This is wrong,” Mattauch said. “The cops were trying to tell me that he’s going to come back and kill me and my son. But they’re wrong. He’s had a huge weight lifted off his shoulder since Edison fired him. . . . This isn’t a postal worker. He’s a nice person. He’s a happy-go-lucky guy.”

Mattauch said the alleged threats consisted of an angry telephone conversation with a boss over a disputed final paycheck.

“They wouldn’t give him his check,” she said. “He got mad at the guy” and angrily asked for his check.

Reza declined a Times request for an interview at the Orange County Jail. Mattauch said she spoke to him by phone Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“He’s just shaking his head,” she said. “He’s bewildered. He was saying, ‘How come I’m guilty until proven innocent? I thought that you were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.’ ”

Reza had been fired by Southern California Edison at least once before but was reinstated through arbitration, union officials said.

“He’s always had disagreements with his supervisors,” said longtime friend Cheryl Krupp of San Juan Capistrano, who rented a room to Reza for about five years. “He was fired about four or five years ago and they went through all this stuff with the union and they had to take him back.”

Krupp said the disputes continued, but that Reza wasn’t particularly upset about them.

“He just kept saying they eventually would pay him off and he’d be out of their hair,” she said.

Mattauch said Reza had been injured in more than one motor vehicle accident in recent years that left him with nerve damage in his arms and legs. He wanted to continue working, she said, but last year supervisors began sending him home. Just before Christmas, company officials fired him over absenteeism.

“He was so excited,” Mattauch said, adding that Reza thought the dismissal would lead to another successful arbitration. “How can you fire someone because you won’t let them come to work?”

Officials for Utility Workers Union of America Local 246, which represents 650 workers at San Onofre, declined to discuss the specifics of the disputes, other than to say that one of Reza’s dismissals progressed to arbitration, which Reza won. Local President Dan Davis said the latest dismissal also was being contested.

“We represent Mr. Reza as well as the remainder of the represented employees at San Onofre, where our priority is their protection and well-being,” said vice president Bill Reid, adding that the union was satisfied with how San Onofre officials handled the situation. “From the sound of it, they were pretty effective.”

Officials for Southern California Edison, which operates San Onofre, declined to comment in detail about Reza’s work history. But they said his security clearance was revoked when he was dismissed in 1995--and the clearance wasn’t reinstated when he returned to the job.

Reza was a regular patron of the Swallows Inn bar and restaurant in downtown San Juan Capistrano, and at one point worked there as a bouncer. As word circulated Wednesday of the arrest, regulars said they had trouble believing Reza--generally viewed as a man given to big talk but small action--would make any serious threats.

“None of that makes sense to me. He’s not like that,” said Jack Holmes, adding that he has known Reza for a decade.

Krupp, Reza’s former landlord and manager of the bar, said that when Reza was renting a room from her, guns seemed to be his only possession.

“His room was nothing but guns and a bed,” she said.

Some of Reza’s former San Onofre co-workers were unfazed Wednesday about the arrest. Security at the plant didn’t seem unusually tight--the guard shack at the plant’s main entrance was vacant as employees arrived for the day shift.

“This situation doesn’t concern me,” said Brad Girard, a plant supervisor. “That to me sounds like a collection of weapons. Unless he’s mad at me, that doesn’t concern me at all.”

Said Jaime Songs, an engineer who has worked at the plant for 20 years, said employees are trained to prepare for disgruntled workers.

“We know it’s an issue that can occur,” Songs said. “Disgruntled employees sometimes take irrational measures. But this place has a lot of guards.”

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Times staff writers Mai Tran and Dave McKibben also contributed to this report.