Of the 10 people charged with misdemeanors as a result of the Tea Fire investigation, two have entered no-contest pleas through their attorneys.

Mohammed Alessam and Hashim Hassan, two members of the group of 10 said to have been at Montecito’s Tea Garden the night before the wildfire erupted Nov. 13, received two years probation and 75 hours of community service from Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Clifford Anderson at a hearing last week. The other eight defendants will return to court May 5.

Alessam, Hassan, Joshua Grant Decker-Trinidad, Hope Sjohnet Dunlap, Fahad Al-Fadhel, Casey James Lamonte, Natalie Rose Maese, Carver William McLellan, Stephen Reid and Lauren Elizabeth Vazquez were charged with misdemeanor trespassing and building a fire without a permit. As part of their no-contest pleas, however, Alessam and Hassan got their illegal campfire charge dropped.

Meanwhile, the mother of one of the two people severely burned by the fire called for a tougher sentence for the entire group. Bianca Benedict, mother of Carla Hoffman, has hired attorney Barry Cappello to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Tea Fire, which severely burned her daughter and her husband, Lance, as the couple fled the fast-moving flames at their Mountain Drive home.

The Tea Fire destroyed 230 homes as it raged through the hills between Montecito and Santa Barbara, burning 2,000 acres in all. The Hoffmans were the most severely burned in the fire, and continue to recover from their injuries.

After months of investigation, the District Attorney’s Office concluded that although the 10, nine of whom were SBCC students, were present the night before at the fire’s point of origin, and built a campfire, there was no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their activities brought on the wildfire the next evening, thus failing to pass the threshold for felony charges. A civil suit may or may not need the same burden of proof, the DA’s office has said.

“We will examine the facts of the fire and the people involved that caused the life-threatening injuries sustained by the Hoffmans,” said Cappello, who added that a decision to bring litigation has not yet been made.

— Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com.