LA Palisades Fire Jury Fails to Reach Verdict in Arson Trial

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(Bloomberg) — A federal jury failed to reach a verdict in the arson case over the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history.

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US District Judge Anne Hwang declared a mistrial after jurors told her Friday they were divided and unable to reach a unanimous decision in the case of Jonathan Rinderknecht.

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Prosecutors alleged that Rinderknecht was lonely and resentful toward society and used a barbecue lighter to start a brush fire on a Pacific Palisades hillside just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025. The government said the blaze smoldered underground after it was contained and re-ignited into a firestorm six days later. 

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Rinderknecht, 30, maintained his innocence, with his lawyer alleging before the trial that he was a scapegoat for the failure of firefighters to fully extinguish the initial blaze.

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The Palisades Fire that was whipped by hurricane force winds on Jan. 7, 2025, killed at least 12 people, charred more than 23,000 acres and destroyed or damaged almost 8,000 structures in one of the city’s wealthiest enclaves. Insured losses from the fire were estimated by Gallagher Re at $23 billion, while total economic losses were projected at $37 billion.

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At the end of the second full day of deliberations after a two-week trial, the jury foreperson told the judge Thursday afternoon the panel was hopelessly deadlocked. The 12-person panel’s vote was 10 for acquittal and two for conviction. Early Friday, after huddling with lawyers on both sides, the judge decided to dismiss the jury.

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The failure to win a conviction is a high-profile setback for the office of acting US Attorney Bill Essayli, who has had a rocky tenure as the Trump administration’s top prosecutor in the nation’s second-largest city. 

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Essayli said Friday he will pursue a retrial. Rinderknecht’s lawyer, Steve Haney, challenged Essayli to try the case himself.

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“Maybe he can come and try it next time,” the defense attorney said. 

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It was a difficult case to prove because the government was trying to blame Rinderknecht both for starting a fire on Jan. 1 and causing the subsequent catastrophe six days later, said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.

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“The government did a good job of dirtying up Rinderknecht, as someone who wanted to wage war against the rich and, as one witness described, as having ‘Incel energy,’” said Rahmani, who now heads the Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers firm. “But being weird or being an Incel doesn’t make you an arsonist.”

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Rinderknecht faced three counts: destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting interstate commerce and a charge of timber set afire. If he had been convicted of all charges, he would have faced a sentence of as long as 45 years in prison.

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The trial’s outcome doesn’t resolve the legal fallout from the Palisades Fire. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power faces thousands of claims from home and business owners accusing the country’s largest municipal utility of failing to supply enough water to fight the conflagration as it spread from the hillside to Malibu on the coast. The utility, in turn, is trying to shift blame to state park officials for not adequately suppressing the Jan. 1 fire.