A federal jury will soon decide the fate of 30-year-old former Pacific Palisades resident charged with “maliciously” setting a fire in a clearing on a Topanga State Park trailhead in the first minutes of the New Year in 2025, a crime that prosecutors say was motivated by a simmering rage at the wealthy.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, a dual French and U.S. citizen, is facing up to 45 years in prison for allegedly starting what became known as the Lachman Fire, which smoldered underground for days until it exploded into the Palisades Fire, the most destructive firestorm in Los Angeles history. The Palisades Fire destroyed nearly 7,000 homes and businesses in the idyllic community and claimed twelve lives in its unimaginable destruction.
The ATF zeroed in on Rinderknecht as the suspected arsonist after painstakingly building a timeline of the then Uber driver’s movements before he allegedly held a long green Bic lighter to some dried brush in a clearing known as the Hidden Buddha. During a taped interview with an ATF agent, Rinderknecht ranted about what he called corporate rule and an unbalanced system of wealth, before muttering: “This is what I disrupted.”
Which, prosecutors argue, amounts to a confession, something that Rinderknecht’s defense denies.
Rinderknecht’s defense attorney Steve Haney began his case last week by playing a 911 call Rinderknecht made in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2025, for the jury, saying: “The government says that’s the voice and actions of a man who started a fire … That’s the voice of a man who’s trying to stop a fire.”…