Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of starting the fire that federal investigators say eventually grew into the deadly Palisades Fire, is now denying he intentionally set the blaze — pointing instead to a mysterious “loud bang” and “flash of light” witnesses reportedly heard before the fire began.
Through his attorney, Rinderknecht’s legal team filed new court documents arguing that the Lachman Fire, which broke out in Topanga State Park in the opening minutes of New Year’s Day 2025, may have been caused by fireworks — not arson. Rinderknecht has been held without bail since his arrest last November.
Steven Haney, an Arizona-based attorney hired by Rinderknecht’s family, claims in the new filing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent leading the investigation is “ignoring multiple witnesses’ factual accounts of hearing a loud bang, followed by a flash of light, then instantly the start of the Lachman Fire.” The filing appeared in the federal court docket on March 23.
Haney also revives an earlier theory suggesting Rinderknecht may have accidentally sparked the fire with a discarded cigarette — not through an intentional act of arson. The attorney wants a judge to allow evidence from a separate arson case in San Diego, in which the same ATF agent, Matthew Beals, investigated a fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in 2020. A 19-year-old sailor accused in that case was acquitted in 2022, and the warship was declared a total loss by the Navy, with damages reaching one billion dollars. Haney argues that the earlier case shows Beals has a pattern of jumping to conclusions.
Federal prosecutors, however, tell a very different story. According to court records, Rinderknecht hiked into a clearing on Skull Head Trail, filmed his location, then used a long green barbecue-style lighter to ignite the dry, leathery leaves of a chaparral brush. A breeze did the rest. Prosecutors say he stayed and watched.
At 12:12 a.m. on January 1, 2025, an environmental sensing camera operated by the University of California, San Diego — set up to monitor wildfire activity in the hills — detected the first glow of what became the Lachman Fire. The blaze smoldered for days before exploding into the catastrophic Palisades Fire.
Prosecutors also noted that five and a half months before the fire, on July 11, 2024, Rinderknecht used ChatGPT to generate an image prompt describing a burning forest, people fleeing in panic, and the world’s wealthy “watching the world burn down.” Haney argues that excluding evidence about Agent Beals’ prior case “would deprive Mr. Rinderknecht of his constitutional rights” to challenge the agent’s conduct before the arrest was made.
The case is ongoing in federal court. No trial date has been publicly announced.
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