Man charged in Palisades Fire says firefighters’ actions broke chain of blame

The man accused of causing the January 2025 wildfires in the Pacific Palisades has asked to include ‘governmental negligence’ as part of his defense, arguing in new court filings this week that firefighters’ failure to extinguish the first of the two fires is a major factor jurors should be allowed to consider.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, faces three federal arson charges for the Jan. 1, 2025 Lachman Fire in the Palisades, that federal prosecutors and ATF agents say smoldered undetected underground until high winds reignited embers six days later and became the Palisades Fire.

“The Defendant is entitled to present evidence and argument to the jury regarding the gross negligence of the Los Angeles Fire Department…and California State Parks in abandoning the smoldering Lachman burn scar on January 2, 2025,” the new defense filing said.

“This conduct — the conscious decision by multiple government fire agencies to abandon a known, visibly and audibly active smoldering wildfire burn scar in advance of a red-flag wind event, in violation of standard wildfire protocol — is precisely the type of gross, unforeseeable negligence that the law recognizes as a superseding intervening cause capable of breaking the causal chain in a criminal prosecution,” the filing said.

“The evidence is squarely admissible and the question is unambiguously one for the jury,” it said.

Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to block discussion of LAFD as a possible or contributing cause, arguing that any alleged negligence of firefighters is, “irrelevant to defendant’s criminal liability for igniting the fire.”

“Blaming first responders to avoid criminal liability is an impermissible attempt at jury nullification,” prosecutors wrote.

“Turning defendant’s arson trial into a mini-trial regarding the LAFD’s response to the arson also would substantially lengthen the trial and confuse jurors,” they said.

The judge presiding over the case has yet to make a ruling.

The defense cited testimony from recent depositions of several LAFD firefighters who said they were instructed to leave the Lachman burn area January 2 despite it, “visibly smoking, audibly crackling with active burning.”

The firefighters were questioned under oath as part of civil lawsuits filed by Palisades Fire victims against the City of Los Angeles, the California State Parks, and other entities.

The City and State have denied liability in court filings.

In March, Rinderknecht’s defense attorney Steve Haney said the revelations from the firefighter depositions should have led to charges being dismissed, saying the new information called into question the foundation of the charges themselves.

At the time the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said, “We’ll see Mr. Rinderknecht in court, and beyond that, we have no comment.”

Also in March, NBC4 Investigates spoke with one of more than two dozen witnesses to the Lachman Fire, who reported seeing a flash and hearing a loud bang just before the fire started, believing someone had set off fireworks to celebrate the new year, and that probably caused the fire.

ATF agents dismissed fireworks as a possible cause of the Lachman fire, saying in an initial criminal complaint filed against Rinderknecht last year, “Nobody… saw fireworks in the vicinity of the Pacific Palisades prior to the start of the Lachman Fire.”

Rinderknecht was arrested last year and indicted on charges of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire for the Lachman Fire.

He has not been charged directly with the Jan. 7 Palisades fire.

Rinderknecht pleaded not guilty and is expected to face trial in June.