After a hearing Monday morning, arraignment for the 10 individuals charged with misdemeanors as a result of the Tea Fire investigation was postponed until March 17. The arraignment was delayed so three of the suspects would have ample time to find legal counsel.
Mohammed Alessam, Joshua Grant Decker-Trinidad, Hope Sjohnet Dunlap, Fahad Al-Fadhel, Hashim Ali Hassan, Casey James Lamonte, Natalie Rose Maese, Carver William McLellan, Stephen Reid and Lauren Elizabeth Vazquez are being charged with misdemeanors of trespassing and starting a campfire without a permit. The identities of the 10 were released two weeks ago, following a lengthy investigation by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office and other agencies. Prosecutors said then that it could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt that the 10 were responsible for the Nov. 13 wildfire that destroyed 230 homes in Montecito and Santa Barbara.
After Lamonte, Maese and Reid told Superior Court Judge Harry Loberg that they could not afford attorneys, Loberg said the trio would need to apply to the Public Defender’s Office for legal representation.
Al-Fadhel was not present at Monday’s hearing. Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth O’Brien told Loberg that he was out of the country and that she would not be issuing a bench warrant on the condition that he appear at the March 17 hearing.
Because of the postponement, the suspects were not forced to answer to the misdemeanor charges. The defendants, as well as their attorneys, declined to comment.
The Tea Fire, which sprang to life late on the afternoon of Nov. 13 amid gale-force sundowner winds and temperatures in the 90s, originated in the area of the Tea Garden above East Mountain Drive in Montecito. The blaze raged for days, destroying 230 homes, seriously injuring two people and scorching 2,000 acres in the Montecito foothills, upper Sycamore Canyon and Rattlesnake Canyon. The fire burned through the Westmont College campus and left the renowned Mount Calvary Retreat House & Monastery in ruins.
In a hastily called news conference Nov. 18, Sheriff Bill Brown said the official investigation had yielded evidence that 10 individuals, nine of whom were SBCC students, were at the fire’s point of origin the night before it started and had lit a bonfire. Brown said an attempt had been made to put the fire out, but the heat and aridity of the day, as well as sundowner winds, whipped the smoldering embers into a wildfire.
“There is evidence that a campfire occurred at the Tea Garden between midnight and 4 a.m. (the morning of Nov. 13),” District Attorney Christie Stanley said in announcing that the 10 would not face criminal charges in the case. “However, the existing evidence does not establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt that this campfire in fact caused the Tea Fire.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.
