The attorney for Jonathan Rinderknecht, the former Uber driver facing federal arson charges connected to the deadly Palisades Fire, is calling on prosecutors to drop the case — pointing to new testimony from Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters who say hotspots were still smoldering when crews left the scene of a smaller blaze six days before the catastrophic fire erupted.
Rinderknecht, 29, was indicted last year on three arson charges accusing him of igniting the smaller Lachman Fire on New Year’s Day 2025 in the Palisades Highlands area of Los Angeles. Prosecutors say that fire smoldered for six days before rekindling and growing into the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and devastated communities across the western edge of Los Angeles. He has pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail since his arrest. He has not been formally charged in direct connection with the Palisades Fire itself.
Defense attorney Steve Haney sent both a letter and an email to federal prosecutors this week, urging them to release his client and dismiss all charges. His argument centers on video-recorded civil depositions from several LAFD firefighters that became public last week as part of a lawsuit brought against the City of Los Angeles and the State of California by thousands of Palisades Fire victims.
According to NBC Los Angeles, one of those firefighters, Scott Pike, testified that part of the Lachman Fire burn area was still actively smoldering on January 2, the day after the fire — when crews were directed to pack up their hoses and leave.
“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 his deposition. “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.”
Haney argues this testimony fundamentally undermines the government’s case against his client. “The prosecutors didn’t know about these critical failures when they sought an indictment, but they do now,” Haney wrote. “Jonathan Rinderknecht has spent 150 days in a federal detention center based on a blatantly false narrative in the criminal complaint. This evidence calls into question not only the fundamental fairness for my client’s continued detention, but the very foundation of the charges themselves.”
As reported by CBS Los Angeles, Haney spoke with reporters Tuesday and said the LAFD’s decision to leave the scene before fully extinguishing the fire shifts responsibility away from his client. He also promised to share additional details about the case at a news conference Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles responded briefly to the defense’s demands, saying, “We’ll see Mr. Rinderknecht in court, and beyond that, we have no comment.”
Patch also reported on the development, noting the depositions were made public as part of the ongoing civil litigation involving thousands of fire victims. Rinderknecht’s trial date has not yet been announced, and it remains unclear whether federal prosecutors will respond formally to the defense’s request to drop the charges.
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