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Witness Says Ghost Ship Heads Ignored Safety Risks

On the first day of testimony in the trial of two men held responsible for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people in Oakland in 2016, Alameda County prosecutors Monday sought to portray the warehouse's leaders as spoiled rich kids who knew the building was dangerous but failed to fireproof it.

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – On the first day of testimony in the trial of two men held responsible for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people in Oakland in 2016, Alameda County prosecutors Monday sought to portray the warehouse's leaders as spoiled rich kids who knew the building was dangerous but failed to fireproof it.

The prosecution’s portrayal of defendants Derick Almena, 49, Max Harris, 29 and other key members of the Satya Yuga artists’ collective – based at the Ghost Ship before it burned down during an electronic music dance party – counters the defense’s narrative that they were poor, community-oriented artists struggling to survive in the Bay Area’s cutthroat housing market.

Almena and Harris each face 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for negligently filling the Fruitvale-area warehouse with combustible materials and failing to install fire safety features such as sprinklers and smoke detectors before illegally renting it out as living quarters and a concert venue.

The picture of privilege came into focus Monday during the testimony of Nicolas Bouchard, who co-signed the Ghost Ship's lease with Almena and lived at the warehouse for about three weeks in late 2014.

During his testimony in Alameda County Superior Court, Bouchard, 27, said he moved into the Ghost Ship to organize a music festival with Almena and that the defendant paid for much of the venture.

Bouchard said he broke a residential lease in the upscale Oakland hills to move into the Ghost Ship, and that his mother, an executive producer at a "large" Chicago advertising agency, paid the lease's early-termination penalty for him.

Before moving into the Ghost Ship, Bouchard said he also lived with Almena on a property in Santa Cruz, a beach town about 70 miles south of Oakland, where the defendant apparently oversaw a marijuana-growing operation. It is unclear whether Almena owned the property.

When asked how they and Satya Yuga's other founding members paid the roughly $10,000 it took to move in to the Ghost Ship, Bouchard said they did so with money "that was supposed to go to the people working on the property that Derick held."

During this time, Bouchard said he and Almena visited music festivals together like Burning Man, a hedonistic arts festival held in the Nevada desert each summer and frequented by Silicon Valley's tech elite. Tickets to Burning Man cost around $400.

"He was like a father figure," Bouchard said of Almena.

Their relationship soured after the lease was signed. Bouchard said that Almena began making unpermitted changes to the Ghost Ship soon after moving in, cutting a 20-foot by 20-foot hole in the ceiling of the building's first floor, so that pianos and organs could be hoisted onto the second floor using pulleys hung from the rafters. There were about 20 pianos and organs housed on the second floor of the building, according to prosecutors.

Almena did not clear any of his alterations with the landlord, putting Bouchard, as co-signer, in violation of the lease. Not wanting to "become liable for the full amount of the lease," – $4,500 a month – Bouchard and his mother approached Almena about hiring licensed contractors to bring the building up to code.

"He scoffed and laughed at us," Bouchard said. "He said it was too mainstream."

Bouchard and another Satya Yuga member moved out of the Ghost Ship two to three weeks later and left for a two-month trip to Thailand and Nepal soon after.

"We decided we were done," Bouchard said.

"I thought it was inadequate in terms of safety," he added later on in his testimony Monday.

On cross-examination, Harris' attorney Curtis Briggs sought to show that Bouchard did in fact believe the Ghost Ship was safe by noting that he had intended to hold community-oriented arts activities in the building, including after-school music classes for children.

Tony Serra, who represents Almena, also noted that Bouchard visited the Ghost Ship six times after moving out but didn't report Almena's allegedly dangerous alterations to police, fire personnel or child protective services, which was monitoring the defendant’s three children. All three lived on the second floor of the Ghost Ship with Almena and his wife, Micah Allison.  

Bouchard conceded that he didn't report the alterations but said that he told Almena to “get his act together because the kids were living in the space at the time.”

“I told him to get his shit together," Bouchard said.

Serra also sought to portray Bouchard as equally responsible – or even more responsible than Almena – in the procurement and establishment of the Ghost Ship. In emails Bouchard sent to the building's landlord before signing the lease, Bouchard referred to the Ghost Ship's founding members as "Satya Yuga LLC" and to himself as Satya Yuga's "executive producer and legal counsel."

On redirect, prosecutor Autrey James asked Bouchard why he no longer thinks of Almena as a father figure.

"I had the rose-tinted glasses taken off," Bouchard said. "I started to see that throughout, I had been manipulated into being around."

According to James, a witness for the prosecution was killed in an accident late Sunday afternoon. The witness did electrical work at the Ghost Ship and was set to testify this week.

Testimony continues Tuesday.

Categories / Criminal, Trials

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