Wow! They sure dug into every possible pocket, didn’t they? (And rightfully so.)
I wonder if that’s going to be what keeps him out of prison – the argument that he couldn’t genuinely have believed that the building was dangerous, if he housed himself and his family there.
I think going after the beer distributor may have been a bit of a stretch.
I heard Derrick just did some electrical work in the warehouse. He did it himself because they couldn’t afford to have it done and the owner refused to do it.
He did not do it to code.
In the interview, Derrick wondered aloud whether or not he is to blame. I think probably yes.
He’s currently on probation for receiving stolen property. (Can’t find the cite).
No, the most egregious was the $30 million lawsuit against the cameraman who filmed the tragedy. I didn’t even know about that until now – WTF??? What could he have possibly done that he didn’t do? Did they claim he was a superhero who didn’t want to risk revealing his secret identity?
At least the promoters, beer distributors, etc. have a financially vested interest in the concert itself. Whether or not it’s appropriate to sue them is a matter for another debate, but it is SOP to go after the people with deep pockets after this type of disaster.
I think there may have been an allegation that he (or possibly his equipment) partially blocked the exit. Dunno if this was valid.
Indeed. But it seems reasonable to think they should have to do something slightly out of the ordinary to incur liability.
Not only is this man a worthless Sack-O-Shit, he is incredibly stupid. Yes, he is definitely to blame if he did work without the city’s knowledge and not up to code.
I think he was just looking at the rents he was receiving and not at the property itself.I worked in rental property management and saw that way too often. One tenant filed a lawsuit because we evicted her after her electricity was turned off for non-payment and she ran an extension cord from the hallway outlet, which we were paying for. “Well, I needed electricity.”
She lost.
Here is Almena in a live interview this morning on the Today show. Dude should get an attorney quickly. He is not doing himself any favors doing interviews like this.
Dude had no business being a manager of a residential space.
Yeah, didn’t interview well. More specifically, from the standpoint of the network and selling advertising it was good, but the guy did himself no favors with that.
Actually, I think he’s trying to portray himself as a hapless dumb-ass. Useful to avoid crimes that require the element of intent.
This place reminds me of “Super Happy Fun Land” in Houston. Super Druggie Scum Land is what it really was. The place was less of a death trap than this was though. Damn.
I’ve never heard “too stupid to prosecute” being used as a defense. 
Maybe a very special case of “diminished capacity.” But I doubt it.
So we have the city, the building owner, and the building’s “manager” (aka master tenant) all trying to deflect blame and minimize their involvement.
Not yet heard from (AFAICT) is whoever organized the party. (May no longer be available.)
His partner is listed in news reports as “Micah” - is that ever a woman’s name, even in the art community of Oakland?
I expect that criminal negligence will come into play.
This guy wouldn’t hold up well under cross examination. It won’t come to that, of course, because no lawyer would put him on the witness stand.
According to this article in the New York Times, when the landlord was scheduled to come by, Almena would have his tenants hide evidence that there was anyone living there.
The California penal code defines involuntary manslaughter as follows:
Given this, I’m not sure that Almena’s state of mind will save him in this case. Even if he believed the space was safe, the deaths were the result of illegal acts on his part.
I think the “not amounting to a felony” exception has to do with the felony murder rule - it can be murder if someone dies as a result of the commission of a felony. I don’t know whether any of the violations in this case amount to felonies.
Yes. What do you think building inspectors do? In a large urban area I can guarantee they don’t have nearly enough inspectors to do the work they have. They also can’t enter a property without permission any more than a police officer can except with a warrant.
Apparently it is.
“Almena and his wife, Micah Allison, and their three young children eventually moved into the Ghost Ship but were not there Friday night. The warehouse had been rented out for an underground dance party, as it often has been, and the couple spent the night at a hotel.”
She looks like a woman in the picture I have seen and they have three children but "I’m not going to guarantee anything.
I don’t know. It just seems weird, it wasn’t some random “your number has come up” inspection, they were there because of a complaint. Seems like they could have tried another method of contacting the owner. I’m not blaming them- it just seems weird.
I don’t know about this specifically, but in a lot of contexts where there are limited resources and many tasks to accomplish of equal priority, you have to triage. Mark it as unable to complete, take some notes, and get back to it when you can. After all, there are 50 more complaints to follow up on, and you can’t put them all on hold while you try to get access to this one property that’s being difficult.