Residents in Corral Fire Area Organize to Attend Court Date

• Two Men Expected to Plead Guilty to Starting Malibu Wildfire on March 18

BY ANNE SOBLE

Motions to dismiss by the two men viewed as the most culpable in the starting of the Nov. 24, 2007 Corral Fire—William Thomas Coppock and Brian Alan Anderson—failed, and the pair are now scheduled to return to court on March 18.

The Operation Recovery group that formed after the disastrous Santa Ana wind-driven blaze that claimed 55 homes, is marshalling Corral Canyon residents to attend the hearing.

Operation Recovery coordinator Beverly Taki said the group is pleased with the court’s decision last week to rule against dismissing the two arson counts against the duo.

The third count, that the fire was started under a governor-declared state of emergency was dismissed because the original document lacked a necessary seal to be “official.”

Taki told her neighbors that their participation on March 18 is “imperative.”

She said she has been told the attorneys for the defendants have indicated that when the pair returns to court on March 18, they likely will plead guilty to both counts and be submitted to the court for sentencing.

Taki added, “Subsequent to that, the court will select a date for sentencing, and [at that time] it will finally be [the residents’] turn to address the court.”

Individuals going before the court usually prepare written statements that they then read to the judge.

Only a limited contingent of local residents attended last week’s hearing because OR was told to expect another continuance. Many of the local residents have attended numerous court sessions in Van Nuys that were continued.

According to a resident  who went last week, “Judge [Susan] Speer determined Anderson and Coppock’s behavior that night to be reckless, based on the evidence presented at the preliminary hearings.”

As for the other two defendants, Eric Matthew Ullman and Dean Allen Lavorante, who had left upper Corral before the wildfire began, court observers expect them to end up with misdemeanor counts.

If Anderson and Coppock do plead guilty, Judge Speer is expected to send them to prison for 90 days and have them undergo psychiatric evaluation that might result in longer sentences or probation.

A fifth defendant, Brian David Franks, has already been convicted of starting the blaze as part of a plea bargain package that required him to testify against the other defendants.