Judge bars LA fire-blame defense in Palisades arson trial
Federal judge rules Jonathan Rinderknecht cannot blame LA City Fire Department's handling of the earlier Lachman Fire at his upcoming arson trial.
By Hans Laetz
A federal judge has ruled that the alleged Palisades arsonist cannot blame the City of L.A.'s incompetence to try to get out of his arson trial.
Jonathan Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. That of course would be the Palisades Fire, which spread from Los Angeles to take out the eastern one-tenth of Malibu and destroyed 720 houses in our city alone.
Rinderknecht will not be allowed to argue that the Palisades Fire was caused by the negligent failure of the LA City Fire Department to put out the smaller Lachman Fire, which the city thought they had controlled six days before the big fire hit us.
This means that depositions from members of the LA City Fire Department and a state park ranger cannot be introduced at trial. Judge Anne Hwang said she thinks the information is irrelevant to the charges against Rinderknecht and could confuse the jury.
This means the lawyers who represent Malibu fire victims will not be able to lean on evidence introduced by federal prosecutors in the criminal case.
Rinderknecht's federal court trial is set to begin June 8. His lead attorney has said that Rinderknecht is being used as a scapegoat for the LA City Fire Department's failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.