LOS ANGELES — The botched response to the Palisades Fire is down to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ “absence and continuing negligence,” a blistering new lawsuit claims.
Bass and the city also worked to “cover up the mayor’s incompetence” by firing the fire chief who spoke out, the legal papers filed by celebrity Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos alleges.
The plaintiff, a homeowner identified only as Aurora Point, LLC, demands a jury trial and damages for a slew of disastrous alleged missteps that allowed the Palisades Fire to destroy their home — along with around 7,000 others in the historic LA neighborhood.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, points to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to extinguish the Lachman Fire, which authorities say re-ignited into the Palisades Fire less than a week later.
Attorney Mark Geragos speaking to reporters amid the Menendez brothers’ parole proceedings in May. David Buchan/New York Post
A firefighting helicopter drops water on the spreading Palisades Fire in January. AFP via Getty Images
Crews were ordered to leave the scene of the Lachman Fire on Jan. 2 even though the ground was still smoking, according to the suit — which repeats claims from sources who spoke to the LA Times last month.
Firefighters had wanted to continue mop-up operations, but their requests were overridden, one source told the outlet.
The lawsuit also outlines a litany of alleged blunders and crossed-wires across several city departments.
These include ignoring red flag fire warnings due to powerful winds, not deploying enough firefighters and equipment, and allowing a strategic reservoir to run dry — causing fire hydrants to go empty as the flames tore through the city.
LA Mayor Karen Bass blamed Fire Chief Kristin Crowley for a series of missteps that facilitated the blaze. MediaNews Group via Getty Images“Much of the botched response was due to the absence and continuing negligence of Mayor Karen Bass, who had inexplicably left the country for a diplomatic visit to Ghana while Los Angeles burned,” the suit says.
“The investigation into the Mayor’s mishandling of the crisis revealed that Mayor Bass’ office ignored critical emails warning of a potentially devastating inferno, which included multiple attachments from the National Weather Service charting the danger.”
Bass is personally named as one of the defendants in the suit — along with the city and county governments and the city Department of Water and Power.
Geragos is one of the most prominent attorneys in the City of Angels; he took this case after a hard-fought effort to win parole for celebrity killers Lyle and Erik Menendez.
The site of a house destroyed in the Palisades Fire. AP
Aerial shot of the aftermath of the Palisades Fire, which torched nearly 7,000 homes. AFP via Getty Images
Mark Geragos represented the mother of Sean “Diddy” Combs, and his daighter Teny Geragos represented Diddy himself in his recent trial. David Buchan/New York PostGeragos’ daughter, Teny Geragos, represented rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs in his recent trial in New York.
His new lawsuit not only accuses Los Angeles officials of incompetence, but also of deception — claiming Mayor Karen Bass fired Fire Chief Kristen Crowley to silence her.
“Mayor Bass’ office along with the City of Los Angeles worked to cover up the Mayor’s incompetence by firing the whistleblower [Crowley] and destroying communications and text messages which would have further exposed the municipal defendants’ recklessness in handling the crisis,” the lawsuit alleges.
The city’s 70-page after-action report admitted to several key mistakes that caused a chaotic, disorganized response that Bass ultimately pinned on Crowley.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, who is accused of starting the Lachman Fire. APBut the report didn’t mention the botched response to the Lachman Fire, nor even name it as the cause of the Palisades Fire.
That revelation came from federal authorities who have charged an alleged arsonist for setting the blaze.
Federal prosecutors say Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, lit the Lachman Fire and then called 911 to report it — but only after typing “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes” into ChatGPT.
Rinderknecht had also used AI to generate images of cities burning, prosecutors claim.
Rinderknecht pleaded not guilty to related charges in October.
