Irwindale police are conducting an investigation into the weekend arrest of City Councilmember Mark Breceda, who was booked on misdemeanor suspicion of driving while intoxicated, officials said.
Police said they received a phone call at 9:39 p.m. Saturday, June 8, about an erratic driver in the area of Arrow Highway and Irwindale Avenue in Irwindale. Police responded and found a vehicle matching the description provided by the caller and made a traffic stop.
Breceda, 64, was booked at the West Covina jail, cited and released, according to Sgt. Diego Cornejo. The department was unable to provide additional information, such as whether the driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, as the investigation is ongoing.
Breceda, a 25-year councilmember and nine-time mayor of the city, could not be reached for comment.
Mayor Albert F. Ambriz also could not be reached for comment. Reached by phone Monday afternoon, Councilmember Larry Burrola said, “I do not know anything about that.”
The city’s public information officer on Monday directed reporters back to the statement from police on the arrest.
It was unclear what impact the arrest could have on the five-member council, or whether the panel would take any action as a result.
Breceda has faced other brushes with law enforcement.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged him, Councilman Manuel Garcia and former Councilwoman Rosemary Ramirez with misappropriation of public funds, conflict of interest and embezzlement in 2010. Prosecutors alleged the officials had spent more than $200,000 of taxpayer money on expensive hotels, restaurants, Broadway shows and limousine services during trips to New York City from 2001 to 2005.
But most of those charges were dismissed in 2015 after the defense successfully argued that the statute of limitations had expired. The remaining charges of embezzlement were dropped a year later by prosecutors, who said they no longer felt they could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The city officials had denied the allegations and said the trips were taken in an effort to help boost the city’s bond rating.
In 2022, during the COVID pandemic, residents complained that Breceda frequently had large, disruptive parties where guests did not wear masks. One particularly raucous Christmas party that year drew denouncements from other council members after a mariachi leaving the gathering allegedly fired off a handgun more than a dozen times.
Officers stopped a truck speeding away from Breceda’s home and found a loaded handgun, two ammunition magazines, several “spent and unspent rounds of ammunition,” and more than a gram of cocaine, according to a news release at the time. Police reportedly collected 16 bullets casings on the street outside the councilman’s home.
The mariachi accused of firing the shots, Jorge Alvarez, 36, of Los Angeles, pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner in March 2024, according to court records.
Irwindale police alleged there was a “dispute at a holiday party between the passenger of the pick-up truck and the occupants of the residence.” Breceda, however, stated at the time that he barely heard the gunshots and that his party was over when they occurred. The councilman said he was “equally disappointed” as his peers, but that he did not know what happened.
“What you’re saying happened, happened in the street,” Breceda previously told his colleagues Jan. 12. “My gathering was over.”
Staff writers David Wilson and Ruby Gonzales contributed to this report.
