SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Less than a week after the master tenant of the Ghost Ship warehouse that burned down last December was arrested and charged with manslaughter, his defense team accused the Alameda County district attorney of filing the charges to advance her career.
"Everyone would concede that the district attorney of Alameda County is politically ambitious – she wants to be the next attorney general," Tony Serra, the civil rights attorney defending master tenant Derick Almena, told reporters at a news conference Friday. "She wants to portray herself through a high media event like this litigation as the avenging angel."
In criminally charging Almena and Harris, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said the two men "knowingly created a fire trap" by blocking off one of only two stairwells in the warehouse the night the fire broke out, which amounted to "a disregard for human life."
Almena and Max Harris, another Ghost Ship tenant who planned the doomed December 2 party, were arrested Monday and criminally charged with 36 counts each of felony involuntary manslaughter. The criminal complaint accuses them of knowingly creating a "fire trap" by allowing individuals to live illegally in the Oakland warehouse, doing electrical work on the building without permits, and letting promoters throw music parties there without basic fire safety measures – such as lighted exit routes – in place.
The Ghost Ship did not have the proper permits to be used as a residential space or an entertainment venue. Nonetheless, as many as 25 artists and musicians lived in RVs and improvised bedrooms on the building’s first floor, and 100 people attended the concert on its second floor the night it went up in flames.
Asked Friday what Alameda County prosecutors thought of Serra's accusations, DA spokeswoman Teresa Drenick reiterated what she told reporters on Monday at a news conference announcing the criminal charges: after an exhaustive investigation, they had concluded that they could get guilty verdicts for Almena and Harris.
"The Alameda County District Attorney's Office holds itself to the highest of professional standards when prosecuting criminal matters; we do not try our cases in the media," Drenick said in an email. "Our ethical duty as prosecutors is to analyze the facts and apply the law to those facts, filing criminal charges only when there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime."
Multiple families of the fire’s victims have sued Almena, the building's owner, Chor Ng, and a slew of other individuals and businesses in a consolidated civil lawsuit, claiming their negligence and failure to evict tenants from a space not zoned as a residence caused the deaths.
Last month, the families added Pacific Gas & Electric to the growing list of 20 defendants, accusing the utility of failing to install separate electrical meters on the Ghost Ship and the buildings next to it as required by the state, and failing to monitor the dangerous flow of power to the buildings through the single meter that had been installed. Almena's defense team also blamed PG&E Friday, telling reporters they had believed the company would be criminally charged.