The defense lawyer representing the man facing federal charges for allegedly causing the Palisades Fire says prosecutors should consider dropping the case, now that some LAFD firefighters testified a hillside still smoldering from an earlier fire was abandoned before it was fully extinguished less than a week before the devastating Palisades Fire.
“The prosecutors didn’t know about these critical failures when they sought an indictment, but they do now,” wrote attorney Steve Haney, who promised to share more insight about the case at a news conference Thursday.
Haney represents Jonathan Rinderknecht, who was indicted on three arson charges last year that accuse him of igniting the smaller Lachman Fire that burned in the Palisades Highlands six days before the larger Palisades Fire.
Rinderknecht pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail until trial. He has not been charged in direct connection with the Palisades Fire.
“Jonathan Rinderknecht has spent 150 days in a federal detention center based on a blatantly false narrative in the criminal complaint,” Haney said. “This evidence calls into question not only the fundamental fairness for my client’s continued detention, but the very foundation of the charges themselves.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said, “We’ll see Mr. Rinderknecht in court, and beyond that, we have no comment.”
Last week, video-recorded depositions of several LAFD firefighters who responded to the Lachman Fire became public as part of the lawsuit brought against the City of LA and State of California by thousands of Palisades fire victims.
One of the firefighters, Scott Pike, said part of the burn area was smoking when he was directed to clean up hoses on Jan. 2, the day after the fire.
“I could feel the heat coming off of it and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot,” Pike said in the testimony.
“So I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it. And there was like red hot like coals, what I believe to be the base of a bush or branches that was still smoldering. I even heard crackling,” he said.