Three of the Five Corral Fire Suspects Arraigned Friday

• Judge Says ‘All the Sorries in the World’ Fall Short•

BY HANS LAETZ

In an unusual bail hearing that ended with the judge calling their acts “careless and callous,” two of the five Corral Canyon arson suspects were unsuccessful in getting any substantive reduction in their bail amounts, meaning at least one will face Christmas in jail.
Instead of a routine bail hearing on whether the two men were risks to the community if released on bail, Judge Michael Kellogg laid out the prosecution’s case against all five men charged with setting the Nov. 24 fire that destroyed 53 houses and severely damaged another 34.
“There is nothing to show me that there wasn’t this callousness,” Kellogg said, “and a high level of carelessness. And all the sorries in the world don’t change that.”
Kellogg rejected requests by attorneys for William Thomas Coppock, 23, and Brian David Franks, 27, that the two men be released on their own recognizance. The judge said Coppock, according to sheriff’s reports, had tried to at least put out some of the fire, and lowered his bond to $100,000.
Coppock’s attorney said his client was an indigent and would have to stay in jail over the Christmas holidays.
Franks’ bail was reduced by $10,000 due to an earlier math error, to $230,000. His attorney said he would bail out of the county jail today.
Already released on bail is Brian Alan Anderson, 23, as well as two Culver City teenagers who were part of a different group of partiers who went to the mountaintop cave overlooking Malibu and the San Fernando Valley to drink beer with girls and light a campfire at a notorious party location on State Parks lands.
The judge told attorneys he had spent a great deal of time reviewing the police reports, and noted that the accusation of causing an arson fire during a state of emergency requires a sentence of state prison time.
He said the sheriff’s department believes that Anderson, Coppock and Franks stole 3-4 packages of precut firewood from the Ralph’s Supermarket in Malibu, and then added that wood to a small campfire already set in the cave by the two Culver City teenage codefendants, Dean Allan Lavorante, 19, and Eric Matthew Ullman, 18.
Those two men apparently left the cave after the older men from Los Angeles arrived and drank between 18-30 cans of beer and other liquor. Anderson reportedly kicked burning logs out of the cave and into surrounding brush, and then allegedly ordered Coppock out of the cave to put it out, according to a sheriff’s report read by one of the attorneys.
Franks’ public defender, Douglas Jay Goldstein, said his client not only did not start the fire, “but seemed to be a good Samaritan.”
“Anderson kicked a burning log out of the cave and said, ‘Here, put this out,’” Goldstein said. “Guys were laughing.”
Anderson next allegedly tossed a burning pillow outside the cave and told Franks to put it out.
Anderson has already been released on $240,000 bail.
The three Los Angeles men will next face a preliminary hearing Jan. 7 in Van Nuys. The two Culver City men will be arraigned there Feb. 14.

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The News

Five Suspects Charged in Corral Fire

• Arson Investigators Praised for ‘Great Detective Work’ •

By Hans Laetz

The rumors sweeping Malibu last week were correct: sheriff’s investigators used cash register tapes to charge three men from Los Angeles and two teenagers from Culver City with setting the Corral Fire at a predawn outdoor party in the moonlit backcountry on Nov. 24.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced Thursday that the men allegedly left partly-burned firewood and snacks at the party site on state parkland—party goods that had been purchased earlier in the evening at a Malibu supermarket.

Baca confirmed reports first printed last week in the Malibu Surfside News that the snacks and firewood had been purchased with plastic money, and that sheriff’s arson squad investigators were able to link specific items found at a campfire at the mountaintop caves with specific purchases using grocery store register tapes.

A search warrant then allowed the investigators to link the purchases by credit or debit card to a specific account holder, Baca said.

“Sheriff’s arson investigators issued a press statement asking for public support in solving the crime, a citizen did respond and offered valuable assistance,” the sheriff said. A young woman who was a member of another group of partiers in the area provided key information about the alleged perpetrators, who were with a second group of people at the site, the sheriff said.

“She was a member of one group, the first group of kids [who] witnessed the second group come up and start the fire,” Baca told the News. “She is a witness, not a suspect.” Baca said investigators went as far as Shasta County near the Oregon border to interview witnesses and suspects. “We know for a fact that items they purchased at the store were left in the debris.”

The suspects include Los Angeles residents Brian Allen Anderson, 22, William Thomas Coppock, 23, and Brian David Franks, 27. Culver City residents Eric Matthew Ullman, 18, and Dean Allen Lavorante, 19, were also charged.

Three of the five suspects were arrested Thursday afternoon, deputies said, with the other two expected to surrender soon.

All will be held pending a bond of about $250,000 each. They are charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure, and arson during an emergency.

All three crimes carry a sentence of between 2-4 years per conviction.

County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky credited arson investigators with “great detective work, great investigative work.” He said, “It is reckless, on top of the illegality, to set a fire anywhere in the mountains when there is a Santa Ana wind condition, as there was that night.”

The arrests came 19 days after the fire swept down Corral, Latigo and Escondido canyons, destroying 53 houses and damaging nearly as many, The Los Angeles County Fire Department has yet to announce a total damages estimate, but the $100 million figure has been speculated.

The five men could be civilly liable for damages, but their assets and ability to repay are dwarfed by the damage done, observers said.

In other fire news, the state fire agency released a tentative report on the injuries incurred by Sacramento-area firefighter Scott Herzog during the early hours of the fire, when he suffered second-degree burns to his face.

A preliminary report said Herzog’s engine was protecting a house at 26160 Fairside Road when a large plastic garbage bin across the street caught fire.

“The firefighter was approximately 3-4 feet from the burning trash can with flames less then a foot tall,” the report said, when the firefighter “sprayed water directly at the base of the flames. When the water hit the burning plastic, a spray of molten plastic and flames enveloped the firefighter.”

Nearby paramedics treated him immediately.

City of Malibu Posts Fire Reward of $25,000

• Money Is Offered for Information that Leads to Arrest and Conviction of Alleged Perpetrators •

The Malibu City Council this week took action to increase the incentive for someone with information about the person or persons who may have intentionally or accidentally started the devastating Corral Fire to step forward and break open the arson investigation that is now underway.

A reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the blaze that claimed over 4900 acres and destroyed or damaged some 90 structures was originally proposed at $10,000, then that amount was increased to $25,000 by unanimous consent of the council at its meeting Monday night.

County officials are also exploring whether to add county funds to the total being offered.

Arson investigators quickly determined that the Nov. 24 fire was the result of human activity and are analyzing articles found at the fire scene that may have been purchased locally.

The council did not have anything new to announce at Monday’s meeting when members noted that “it was in the community’s best interest to offer a monetary reward for information that directly leads” to the determination of how the conflagration started and the possibility that criminal prosecution could ensue.

City to Try to Ban New Camping on Public Lands

• Council Bows to Resident Pressures in the Wake of Two Major Wildfires

By Bill Koeneker

In what may have been one of the most raucous sessions in recent memory, emotions ran strong at Wednesday’s Malibu City Council meeting when members openly responded to public pressure and unanimously voted to seek a ban on all new camping within the city.

The issues of wildfire and public camping became interwoven—despite all data to the contrary—in the wake of two major conflagrations in as many months, providing impetus for a concerted political campaign to hamstring council efforts at a city-state compromise on increased camping on public lands.

At the same time the council voted to seek a Local Coastal Program Amendment policy to prohibit camping in open spaces and commercial recreational land, the members approved a scaled-back version of the LCPA sought by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for its park and trails plan.

City council members readily acknowledge that this issue could once again provoke a showdown between the city and powerful state agencies, including the SMMC and the California Coastal Commission, which must approve the city’s request for a LCPA.

SMMC Executive Director Joe Edmiston, who appeared disappointed and angry at the outcome, summed up the current situation when he told the council, “When you say Malibu is up against the state, you have laid down the gauntlet.”

Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who made the motion for the ban that nevertheless includes limited disabled user camping at Ramirez Canyon Park, said the city was taking on a fight and would need the support of the public, especially when the matter is before the Coastal Commission.

“What the consequences are, if we lose, [is that] Mr. Edmiston will have what he wants without the city [having a say on it],” she said.

Councilmember Ken Kearsley, who stressed that the mission of the SMMC and the CCC is to allow public access to parkland, said the city’s efforts were a way to try to limit camping—to get a handle on it.

Acknowledging that the council is backing down from its original stance and is now seeking a ban because of public pressure, Kearsley said, “Now you are asking us to take a crap shoot by saying no to camping. Now we are going to have it out of here and move it to the Coastal Commission, and then it will go to the courts. It will be up to a judge.”

Late Tuesday, the evening before the meeting, Edmiston put a revised plan on the table that was outlined by the city attorney. This proposal included no camping in Charmlee Park, camping in Corral Canyon and Escondido Canyon, and increased activity at Ramirez Canyon Park. The SMMC head had also said he would waive the timetable for action if the council wanted to consider his revised request, but the members passed this up.

The city council’s change of position is being interpreted as a victory for Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, who was, from the outset, the lone dissenter on attempts to negotiate overnight camping and repeatedly called for a camping ban. On Wednesday, she praised her colleagues for their turnabout on the thorny issue.

Councilmember Andy Stern said he could support the measure because it kept policy determination in the hands of the city. He noted that, if the council had turned down the LCPA, the matter would have gone straight to the state Coastal Commission without further input from the city.

Edmiston told the council that they had not really banned camping since it is taking place right now in Corral Canyon at the RV facility on Pacific Coast Highway. He said the difference is that the cost at the RV park is $40 or $50 a night, and that means camping is only available for those who can afford that.

Conley Ulich responded that there are over 300 campsites in or near Malibu where camping experiences are available for as little as $15 a day. She said, “We welcome people to Malibu. We just need to educate them [about the dangers of fire].”

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY LANE CLOSURES FOR FIRE-RELATED REPAIRS

The California Department of Transportation announced that one northbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway from John Tyler Road to Corral Canyon Road will be closed on Wednesday, Dec. 5, and Thursday, Dec. 6, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and one southbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway from Latigo Canyon Road to Corral Canyon Road will be closed on Wednesday, Dec. 5, and Thursday, Dec. 6, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for work by Southern California Edison to repair damaged electrical equipment caused by recent fires.

Caltrans advises motorists to "Slow For The Cone Zone."