{"id":19083,"date":"2026-06-30T22:31:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19083"},"modified":"2026-06-30T22:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:31:45","slug":"palisades-fire-arson-prosecutors-say-theyll-retry-the-case-but-should-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19083","title":{"rendered":"Palisades fire arson prosecutors say they\u2019ll retry the case, but should they?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After a jury failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of igniting what became the massive Palisades fire, prosecutors immediately pledged to try again, but legal experts say the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office will have to reassess its court strategy if it hopes to win over a new jury.<\/p>\n

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Given the surprise split of last week\u2019s jury \u2014 10 to 2 in favor of an acquittal \u2014 some also questioned the wisdom of moving forward with a second trial, while others noted that prosecutors now have the chance to potentially refocus their case based on feedback from jurors who weren\u2019t convinced during the first trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a high-profile prosecution; you (the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office) held a big press conference,\u201d said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, in an interview following the mistrial. \u201cYou told the entire country he was responsible. And you couldn\u2019t even get the majority of the jurors, when you need a unanimous vote to convict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of starting a blaze that eventually became the disastrous Palisades fire, remains in custody as he awaits an October retrial.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the mistrial was declared on Friday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced on X that his office intended to retry the case, adding that \u201cthe evidence is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018total loss\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rahmani, however, called last week\u2019s result a \u201ctotal loss\u201d for the government and said he believes the U.S, Attorney\u2019s Office should step away from the case.<\/p>\n

While there was evidence to suggest Rinderknecht started the Lachman fire, Rahmani said, making the leap from Jan. 1 to the Jan. 7 start of the Palisades fire was a \u201cbridge too far and I don\u2019t think the jurors bought it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe true biggest challenge in this case,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve never covered a case ever where the ignition happened on one day and the real effects weren\u2019t felt for a week later.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the nine months between the fire and Rinderknecht\u2019s arrest, \u201cpeople developed some very strong feelings about who was responsible,\u201d he added, whether it was Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Fire Department or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power who were seen as dropping the ball.<\/p>\n

An uphill battle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor and Loyola Law School professor, said Essayli \u201cdidn\u2019t do himself any favors\u201d by immediately announcing the move to a retrial on social media, which some people, she added, viewed as \u201cknee jerk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

But, Levenson noted, Essayli may have done so in order to show confidence in his prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Levenson said the reaction by the first jury shows prosecutors have an uphill battle and that there are \u201cserious issues\u201d with the case. But she added that the case was not necessarily a lost cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing they need to do is listen to the jurors who have spoken,\u201d Levenson said. \u201cWhen you have ten that are \u2018not guilty,\u2019 to the extent you can find out why, that is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a year in which criticism about the response to the fire by the Los Angeles Fire Department and city leaders has been publicly aired at length, residents want answers, Levenson said. But Rinderknecht\u2019s trial is meant to focus solely on his alleged role in igniting the fire. Levenson said that makes jury selection \u2014 and finding out whether prospective jurors have an agenda based on their potential knowledge of the fire or the first trial \u2014 a key concern for prosecutors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not sure they knew enough about the jurors and their attitudes regarding the case,\u201d Levenson said. \u201cNow you have to worry if you have jurors who have an agenda one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levenson noted that a major focus of the first trial was on Rinderknecht\u2019s social media and alleged motive. But, based on comments made by at least one juror afterward, the jury appeared to want to see more forensic evidence so that they could play \u201cjunior sleuth,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Rolling the dice<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Day, a New Mexico-based defense attorney with experience in arson cases, said should prosecutors retry the Rinderknecht case, the question would be whether they would run into the same issues in terms of lack of proof with 12 new jurors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government can\u2019t ignore the 10-2 split (in favor of acquittal) and the government has to rethink the science, the causation and the motivation of the defendant,\u201d Day said. \u201cBut again, the things that were uncertain in the first trial will certainly be uncertain in a subsequent trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou roll the dice with a new jury and a new trial, but the defense knows what works for them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Day acknowledged the work of the defense team in presenting possible alternative causes, like fireworks, to raise reasonable doubt with the jury.<\/p>\n

Without direct evidence, the government had to \u201cplug that hole\u201d with circumstantial evidence, including the defendant\u2019s digital trail and ChatGPT use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jurors are going to want something that says, \u2018Here\u2019s the guy, here\u2019s how he started it,\u2019 \u201d Day said.<\/p>\n

A new trial would require a lot of resources and money spent, the defense attorney added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that the best use (of those resources)?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

By their nature, arson investigations into large-scale wildfires provide defense attorneys with a lot of room for potential reasonable doubt when it comes to how the flames were actually ignited.<\/p>\n

The last high-profile arson suspect to go on trial related to a major wildfire, Forrest Clark, was fully acquitted of igniting the Holy Fire, which burned through Orange and Riverside counties in 2018. Orange County prosecutors had accused Clark of being a \u201cmonster\u201d at the time of his arrest. But an Orange County Superior Court jury arrived at a not guilty verdict in 2023 after Clark\u2019s defense attorney accused fire officials of carrying out a sloppy and inadequate investigation that failed to prove he actually ignited the blaze.<\/p>\n

If the prosecutors in the Rinderknecht case want to avoid the same fate, it appears they will have to deal in particular with the skepticism the first jury apparently had regarding the delay between when Rinderknecht is alleged to have first sparked a fire in the area and when the blaze that became the Palisades fire ignited out of control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public just wants answers to how this could happen,\u201d Levenson said. \u201cAnd it is a little hard for them to believe a guy who lit a match a week earlier is responsible for all this horror.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Though the U.S. Attorney’s Office has said, ‘The evidence is strong,’ some legal experts question whether it’s worth pursuing a retrial, after only 2 of the 12 jurors found Jonathan Rinderknecht guilty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPalisades fire arson prosecutors say they\u2019ll retry the case, but should they? - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19083\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palisades fire arson prosecutors say they\u2019ll retry the case, but should they? 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