At the request of the prosecutor and defense attorneys, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael K. Kellogg granted Corral Fire suspects Eric Matthew Ullman and Dean Allen Lavorante a continuance on Friday morning for their arraignment hearing. The Culver City teens, whose arraignment has been postponed three times, will return to court on July 11.
Friday was the first court appearance in this case for prosecutor Ann Ambrose, who was assigned to the case last month after prosecutor Samuel Dordulian left the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office to go into private practice. Ambrose’s name might be recognizable to some in Malibu because she was the prosecutor for the case against George Russell Weller, the Santa Monica man who killed 10 people in 2003 when he drove his car through the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.
Mark Werksman, the attorney for Ullman, said the change of prosecutors was a major reason for the request of the continuance. He said he and Ben W. Pesta II, Lavorante’s attorney, are continuing discussions with the District Attorney’s Office to “resolve the case.”
There are also three Los Angeles residents who are charged with causing the Corral Fire. They pleaded not guilty in December, and are scheduled to appear in court June 10 to set a date for a preliminary hearing.
According to a press release issued by the District Attorney’s Office in December, Ullman and Lavorante were the first to appear at an area at the top of Corral Canyon Road known as The Cave in the late hours of Nov. 23. The Los Angeles trio—Brian Alan Anderson, William Thomas Coppock and Brian David Franks—arrived later. A campfire started at the location got out of control in the early hours of Nov. 24 and led to Malibu’s most destructive fire since 1993.
Werksman and Pesta have said their clients had less to do with causing the blaze than the Los Angeles suspects did. Werksman reiterated this opinion after Friday morning’s court session.
“The two cases are like day and night in terms of responsibility for what happened out there,” Werksman said. “I think there’s a general recognition that Eric and Dean didn’t do anything wrongful with regard to the fire in Malibu.”
All five suspects are charged with felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure. The District Attorney’s Office says the blaze was started “during and within an area of a state of emergency,” which would require a mandatory state prison sentence if the suspects were convicted.
Although the two sets of suspects have appeared in court at different times, the five men are still technically being charged in the same case. Werksman and Pesta said in February a severance request might be made. The Los Angeles trio might not be tried together either in the event the case was to reach the trial stage. At the December arraignment hearing, Franks’ lawyer, public defender Douglas Goldstein, said his client was the only one who attempted to put out the fire. Coppock’s attorney, Andrew Flier, said at a press conference after the hearing that Goldstein’s comments were inappropriate, and added he might request a severance.
The Corral Fire burned 4,900 acres. In addition to the homes, 37 vehicles and a mobile home were also destroyed. Another 45 structures, including 33 homes, were damaged. Six firefighters were injured, including one who received second-degree burns to the face.