The man accused of ultimately igniting the devastating Palisades Fire has been “a scapegoat from day one,” his high-profile attorney told The California Post.
Miami-based defense attorney Steve Haney, known for his flamboyant style, told The California Post that his client, 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, has been subjected to “character assassination” since the day of his arrest in connection with the deadly Palisades Fire.
“There’s been a presumption of his guilt from day one,” Haney said. “There’s been a lot of negative pretrial publicity.”
Haney insists prosecutors have failed to prove Rinderknecht started the Jan. 1, 2025 blaze.
“There is no evidence that he started the fire. This is all circumstantial,” he said.
For more than a week, Haney and Rinderknecht have watched prosecutors build their case largely around the defendant’s state of mind before the fire. Jurors have been shown conversations Rinderknecht had with ChatGPT, which he allegedly used as a journal to vent about climate change and the wealthy.
The government has also highlighted angry text messages sent to a girlfriend who declined to spend New Year’s Eve with him and a French music video he repeatedly played around the time of the fire, which prosecutors argue references burning objects.
“It’s a song about smoking a joint and drinking tea, not arson,” Haney has argued in court.
Prosecutors acknowledged in opening statements that they have no footage showing Rinderknecht igniting a fire shortly after midnight, relying instead on cellphone records and grainy surveillance video placing him near where the initial 9-acre blaze began.
Fire experts have testified that the catastrophic Jan. 7 Palisades Fire was a rekindling of the Jan. 1 fire, which smoldered underground for days before powerful Santa Ana winds fanned it into the inferno that devastated Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu.
“Rinderknecht wasn’t anywhere near the Palisades on January 7,” Haney has repeatedly noted.
Before Rinderknecht’s arrest, much of the public blame was directed at Mayor Karen Bass, who was in Ghana on a trip led by then-President Joe Biden when the fire erupted.
Critics also blasted Bass over empty reservoirs in Pacific Palisades during the crisis, fueling anti-Bass activism and even helping spark former reality star Spencer Pratt’s mayoral campaign.
When asked by The Post whether his client had become a scapegoat for Bass and the city, Haney declined to go there.
“I’m not allowed to get into that,” he said. “The judge made it very clear that we’re not to address those issues of negligence. We’ll stay focused on the lack of evidence that Jonathan started the fire on January 1.”
Rinderknecht’s father, Joel, has attended court daily and remains adamant his son is innocent. Haney expects to begin presenting the defense case Thursday, hoping to persuade the all-Los Angeles jury that Rinderknecht is not the villain prosecutors have portrayed.
“People may have made up their minds already,” Haney said. “Hopefully the jury will keep an open mind and follow the evidence.”
