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
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.
