8 Arrests for Drunkenness After Parade

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies made eight arrests Saturday during post- parties.

The arrests were all for suspicion of public drunkenness, reported Lt. John Meyer, chief of police services for San Juan Capistrano.

Parade organizer Fiesta Association hosts a street fair and marketplace called Mercado on the same day as the Swallows Day Parade, attracting tens of thousands of revelers. The event features a beer garden.

In addition, several restaurants offer live entertainment and sell alcoholic beverages.

One of the sheriff's contacts involved a man who allegedly broke a front window at with his elbow, said restaurateur and head chef Pascquale Manta.

The restaurant was filled to capacity and, all of a sudden, glass went flying, Manta said. Some customers suffered minor cuts.

“A couple of employees and customers chased after him and caught up to him at the train station,” Manta said.

The sheriff's dispatch log said the suspect was taken to San Clemente Hospital at his request. It also says that no one wanted to press charges.

Meyer said he had noticed the problem of public drunkenness at previous Mercados.

“It seemed a lot of people [in the past] were inebriated. We didn’t have the staff to deal with that,” he said.

So this year, the Sheriff’s Department sent in a much larger force, hiring more reserve deputies for the day.

Fiesta officials said only one of the arrests actually happened in the Mercado area, at Historic Town Center Park.