Corral Fire suspects arraignment continued, case has new prosecutor
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 Friday morning on 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 last month after prosecutor Samuel Dordulian left the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office to go into private practice. Ambrose 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. 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.”
The 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.
November ballot could include community College bond
Four years after voters in the Santa Monica College District, which includes Malibu, approved a $135 million facilities improvement bond measure, another one could be on the November ballot.
At its meeting on May 12, the SMC Board of Trustees heard the results of a study on whether voters would approve a $295 million bond measure. According to the study, 68 percent of 500 registered voters surveyed said they would support the bond when told it would cost $1.12 per month for renters and $7.34 per month “for the average homeowner or condominium owner.” Thirteen of 15 people in a focus group also said they would support the measure, a district staff report stated.
The money would be used to support a variety of projects, including “a joint-use learning center for Santa Monica College, Malibu High School and Malibu Middle School.”
The trustees will vote July 7 whether to put the bond measure on the ballot.
Measure S, the $135 million measure approved in 2004, guaranteed at least $25 million for projects in Malibu. Of that, $2.5 million has been used for the purchase of Legacy Park. Two years ago, the remaining money had been proposed to be used for the purchase of the Yamaguchi property in front of City Hall to build a college campus. The land was put in escrow, but the offer to buy was withdrawn by the college a few months later for undisclosed reasons.
Local killed in PCH crash
Malibu resident Robert McGreevy, 51, died Sunday afternoon after his vehicle crashed into a tree on Pacific Coast Highway near John Tyler Drive. Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Sgt. Phil Brooks said McGreevy lost control of his vehicle when he blacked out shortly after 1 p.m.
A test is being done to determine if McGreevy was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Brooks said.
Road closures update
The California Department of Transportation is closing one eastbound lane of Pacific Coast from La Tuna Canyon and three miles southward this week through Thursday from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. One lane will then be closed from La Tuna Canyon to the McClure Tunnel in “spot locations” Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. One lane of the highway from Sweetwater Canyon to about half a mile east of Las Flores Canyon is closed this week through Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
These Pacific Coast Highway closures are for grinding, paving and manhole cover work on a $7 million, 11.6-mile paving project from Malibu Lagoon Bridge to the McClure Tunnel.
Caltrans is also closing one eastbound lane of the highway between Heathercliff and Kanan Dume roads this week through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The area will be closed during the same time frames next Tuesday through Thursday. No reason was given for this closure.
Santa Monica ballot measure called traffic fighter
Proponents of a development-limiting measure that will appear on the November ballot in Santa Monica say its approval will reduce traffic congestion.
The county clerk this week certified that more than the required 5,800 signatures of the 10,000 submitted last month by a citizens group are valid.
The measure is known as the Residents’ Initiative to Fight Traffic, or RIFT. It calls for limiting commercial development to 75,000 square feet a year for the next 15 years.
“Residents are fed up with overwhelming traffic congestion and our city’s continuing failure to set limits on commercial growth, which is a major source of gridlock,” said Diana Gordon, co-chair of the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, which authored the initiative in a press release.
Opponents of the measure say it fails to make a direct connection between commercial development and traffic congestion.
MalibuGreenMachine names new board member
Stephen Shapiro, chairman of the WEA Westside Estate Agency, has joined the MalibuGreenMachine’s Board of Advisors.
“Last April we opened our Malibu branch,” Shapiro said in a press release. “We recognize the importance of community and being part of the Malibu family.”
Shapiro said he is attracted to the nonprofit’s Pacific Coast Highway median enhancement project, which he said would increase safety on the highway.
“For many of our clients the highway is their front driveway,” Shapiro said. “It’s the first thing they see in the morning, the last thing they see at night. And, boy, could it use some TLC.”
The $1.5 million privately funded project is scheduled to begin construction Sept. 25. The nonprofit still needs to raise $700,000. The Malibu Pier is hosting a ground-breaking party for the project on Sept. 27 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be music and dancing on the pier.
-Jonathan Friedman