Posted on 12/20/2016 6:33:33 PM PST by SteveH
Attorneys for master tenant Derick Ion Almena at the “Ghost Ship” warehouse in Oakland where 36 people died in a fire Dec. 2 issued a statement Monday saying he didn’t engage in criminal misconduct and alleging that government agencies are responsible for the fire.
High profile attorney Tony Serra and colleagues Jeffrey Krasnoff and Kyndra Miller also alleged that the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which is conducting a criminal investigation into the fire, has a conflict of interest, reports CBS San Francisco.
The attorneys said they would be the courtroom attorneys for Almena, 46, if any charges are filed against him for the fire at the warehouse at 1315 31st Ave.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Wow, this guy really is a LW democrat. Blaming other right away
Weird.
He ain’t got the money to pay these slick shysters.
Yeah, the government made them all be there against their will.
The city will wind up giving him $20 million to go away and keep quiet.
He should have waited a few weeks, because after inauguration, everything will be Trump’s fault.
I actually think e has a pretty good case against the City, the Inspector should have already been BOOKED AND CHARGED for this Fire.
It is the Responsibility of the Fire Inspector to assure the public of the buildings safety, they never did any such inspection, instead they just kept ignoring the LAW.
See Flint Michigan Prosecutions over Poison Water
Government = deep pockets.
No Fire Inspector will be charged because no fire inspector ever entered the building for an inspection. Fire inspectors in big cities don't go around randomly inspecting buildings. Inspections are typically prioritized and assigned by a Fire Marshal or a Chief in charge of the fire prevention bureau. A list is given to the fire inspector, and he just inspects what's on the list (or if he is sent out to a particular building in response to a specific complaint).
In this case, Oakland doesn't even have a fire marshal, the Chief of the department taking that role to herself. If there's any scrutiny due the fire department in this case, it should be placed on the Chief, or her higher-ups in the City, if they mandated her organizing her department in this way.
Having said that, I place the blame squarely on the building owner. Whether he got an inspection or not, he knew he was occupying the building for illegal use and he is the one who allowed the building to devolve into a firetrap.
There’s pretty good evidence (reports) about multiple inspectors being turned away (from different city offices) and many times that the residents inside went to great lengths (with the owner’s collusion and conspiracy assistance) to defeat inspections.
But the Oakland fire chief is a affirmative action special case. Incompetent is a compliment.
Correct-- Several "city officials" (probably building or zoning guys) apparently went out there for exterior trash complaints and left without entering, but there's no indication that a fire department fire inspector was ever sent to the building. That is the point I was responding to.
Take a look at Google maps of that area, Oakland Fire Station 13 is right out the bok door-a stones throw away. How could they walk by this for YEARS and ignore it?
See my post 7. It doesn't have anything to do with "ignoring" it. If it wasn't on their list and they didn't have a specific fire code related complaint, the fire department inspectors had no reason to go inside.
One has to wonder, but it isn't the rank and file FFs that are to blame here. This is squarely on the Chief, and she needs to be terminated and charged with dereliction of duty and manslaughter. I did look at it on the map though and it's a tenth of a mile as the crow flies.
Lawyers these days can always find ways to divide up culpability. The City will end up partly culpable, but the owner is certainly more culpable and the manager has culpability too. Of course someone also started the fire and many attendees observed unsafe conditions and decided to party on.
If you want to see how large a penalty each group ends up with, watch and see if other similar establishments are inspected, improved, licensed? Etc. My guess is that settlements will not be talked about and other places will be ignored.
Nah, the government has a hole in its pockets, they just have arms long enough to reach thru the hole into OUR pockets.
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