Pair Whose Bonfire Led to Corral Canyon Blaze Given More Time

• Culver Men Are Still Being Handled Separately from L.A. Trio Who Fueled Flames

BY HANS LAETZ

The two Culver City men charged with starting last November’s wildfire that claimed at least 53 Malibu houses made another brief court appearance last week, but their lawyers agreed with prosecutors to delay proceedings six weeks.
Dean Allen Lavorante and Eric Matthew Ullman stood silently as their lawyers won permission to have a formal arraignment and entry of pleas delayed to May 16.
That hearing will again happen before Judge Michael Kellogg. Lavorante and Ullman were 18 and 19 years old last fall, and are two of the five men accused of starting the fire Nov. 24 at a cave at the top of Corral Canyon Road, a notorious party spot for underage drinkers.
Prosecution of three other men accused in the same case is proceeding on a separate track, although no formal decision has been made yet on whether to actually try the two sets of defendants separately, court officials said.
Los Angeles residents Brian Allen Anderson, 22, William Thomas Coppock, 23, and Brian David Franks, 27, all face a preliminary hearing sometime this summer, with an exact date to be set at their next hearing on April 21. That hearing will be before a different judge, but will also be held at the Van Nuys courthouse.
All five are out of jail on bail pending trial.
The five defendants in the case are identically charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure, and arson during a declared emergency. All three of those crimes are felonies; each carries a sentence of between 2-4 years in state prison.
Defense attorneys for the two Culver City men said their clients are less culpable than the three Los Angeles men because they started a small bonfire and were kicked out of the cave when the other men arrived that night. The Los Angeles trio reportedly added several bundles of wood stolen from the Ralph’s Market in Malibu to the original bonfire.
But prosecutors have said there is no legal difference between allowing a small fire to be started, or creating a large fire that destroys occupied structures. And California arson laws do not require intent by the fire-starters or fire-spreaders to burn houses.
Burned-out canyon residents have served notice they will file suit against the California State Parks Department for having allowed underaged drinking and illegal fires to occur at the caves despite frequent complaints from canyon residents alarmed at the fire danger caused by a lack of police patrols and gates on canyon roads that were supposedly off-limits at night.
The fire burned through Corral, Latigo and Escondido canyons in the predawn hours of Nov. 24, two days after Thanksgiving. No official damages total has been released for the blaze, but damages were estimated significantly above $100 million.
County fire officials said 53 houses were destroyed, but prosecutors put the count at 55. The fire burned to the Pacific Coast Highway, but a massive initial response of fire engines meant no houses were lost more than four hours after the fire was reported.
It was the third brushfire to hit Malibu in 2007. The Oct. 21 Canyon Fire burned 22 structures in the hills between Malibu Canyon and Carbon Mesa, and the Jan. 8 Bluffs Park fire took out six beachfront houses along Malibu Road.
The Canyon Fire was tentatively blamed on a snapped Malibu Canyon power pole, and no cause was ever determined for the Bluffs Fire.