Prosecutors in the Oakland Ghost Ship trial fired back after the defense team called for the citizens’ arrest and prosecution of 14 people not charged in the deadly fire, calling the defense’s demands “unprecedented.”
“They would place the Court in the role of prosecuting authority,” Deputy District Attorney Autrey James argued in a Dec. 26 motion. “More to the point, they are wholly unsupported by law.”
Two people are criminally charged in the 2016 blaze that killed 36 people attending an electronic music show. The Ghost Ship warehouse’s master tenant, Derick Almena, and creative director Max Harris each face 36 charges of involuntary manslaughter in a trial that is scheduled for April.