Arson

Firefighters on Sunday were investigating arson as the possible cause of a fire that burned nearly 50 acres of brush Saturday in Griffith Park, said Los Angles Fire Capt. Armando Hogan. The blaze was fully contained Saturday night. It forced the evacuation of the Travel Town railroad museum shortly after 2 p.m. Later, four other fires ignited nearby. More than 300 firefighters brought the flames under control by 7 p.m. -- David Pierson

In a case that has highlighted the perils of forensic science, a federal magistrate is expected to rule soon on whether a man convicted of a triple murder arson may be innocent. During a three-day hearing ordered by a federal appeals court, U.S. Magistrate Michael J. Seng heard evidence last week that suggested George Souliotes, 71, may have been wrongly convicted of setting a fire in a Modesto rental home he owned that killed three tenants: Michelle Jones, 31; and her children, Daniel Jones Jr., 8; and Amanda, 3. Jones' husband was not at home during the fire.

A Caltech graduate student convicted five years ago of conspiracy and arson for vandalizing 125 SUVs has had his arson convictions overturned and his sentence vacated by a federal appeals court. William Cottrell, 29, should have been allowed to present evidence during his 2004 trial that his suffering from Asperger's syndrome prevented him from forming the specific intent to commit the arson attacks, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an amended opinion this week. Cottrell's conspiracy conviction was upheld, but the 100-month prison sentence imposed on him for all of the offenses was vacated.

— One of the world's oldest cypress trees was destroyed in a mysterious fire Monday. A state Division of Forestry investigator listed the cause as "undetermined" but ruled out arson, said Cliff Frazier, an agency spokesman. Firefighters responded about 5:50 a.m. to the blaze, which was burning inside the 3,500-year-old tree named the Senator. About 7:45 a.m., a 20-foot section of the treetop fell off, Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright said. By 8:15 a.m., more of the tree had collapsed.

Hollywood arson suspect Harry Burkhart terrorized Los Angeles residents with a four-day rampage over New Year's weekend because he was "motivated by his rage against Americans," prosecutors alleged in court papers filed Wednesday. Burkhart appeared in court briefly to be arraigned on 37 felony counts of arson that could send him to prison for life. He looked disheveled and distracted as jail authorities have him under suicide watch. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Upinder S. Kalra set bail at $2.85 million and agreed to postpone arraignment until Jan. 24 at the request of Burkhart's public defender.

In a case that has highlighted the perils of forensic science, a federal magistrate is expected to rule soon on whether a man convicted of a triple murder arson may be innocent. During a three-day hearing ordered by a federal appeals court, U.S. Magistrate Michael J. Seng heard evidence last week that suggested George Souliotes, 71, may have been wrongly convicted of setting a fire in a Modesto rental home he owned that killed three tenants: Michelle Jones, 31; and her children, Daniel Jones Jr., 8; and Amanda, 3. Jones' husband was not at home during the fire.

The FBI has arrested an environmental activist in connection with the attempted arson of unfinished town homes in Pasadena in 2006, authorities said today. Stephen James Murphy, 43, was arrested without incident Wednesday at his home in Arlington, Texas, after being named in a criminal complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. According to the complaint, the Pasadena Fire Department responded to a construction site on Sept. 19, 2006, and found what it described as a "crude incendiary device" made from cigarettes that had failed to ignite.

A 13-year-old El Monte boy was charged Friday with two felonies for allegedly starting the Morris fire on Aug. 25 that burned more than 2,100 acres north of Azusa, prosecutors said. The youth, whose name was withheld by prosecutors because of his age, is accused of felony arson of a forest and recklessly causing a fire to a forest or structure. Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office, said the boy is not in custody and is scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court in Pomona on Nov. 17. Robison said investigators are not revealing yet how the fire was ignited, but the boy was among a group of people known to be in the area at the time the fire began.

A suspected arson fire that damaged a Hemet Police Department evidence building early Monday morning could be the seventh attack on the law enforcement agency this year The fire was reported at 2:23 a.m. and severely damaged the building and evidence stored inside. The facility, which is across a parking lot from Hemet's main police station, stores evidence for pending and past criminal cases, said agency spokesman Lt. Duane Wisehart. "There's some pretty significant damage to the roof and other parts of the building," he said.

A former firefighter and author of books about historic Chicago blazes was sentenced to three years in prison for setting fire to a storage building at a church. David Cowan, 42, whose books include "Great Chicago Fires: Historic Blazes That Shaped a City," pleaded guilty to one count of arson, prosecutors said. Before the sentencing, Cowan apologized to the judge for his actions, defense attorney Thomas Durkin said.

For years, Canada has had one of the most generous immigration policies in the world, welcoming tens of thousands of asylum applicants who claim to be fleeing persecution in their homelands. But Canada's Conservative government has begun rolling up the welcome mat, stepping up efforts to track down and deport thousands of asylum-seekers whose applications have been denied. The clampdown is likely to be felt not only across Canada, but in the United States. Fresh from the revelation that Los Angeles arson suspect Harry Burkhart traveled to the U.S. from Vancouver after losing his nearly three-year bid for refugee status, immigration analysts here warn that the United States could become a new destination for thousands of asylum applicants soon to be pushed out of the pipeline in Canada.

Hours after a series of arson fires erupted across Los Angeles last month, Harry Burkhart walked into the German Consulate looking for help in freeing his mother from a Los Angeles jail where she was being held on a German criminal warrant. As he walked down a hallway of the building on Wilshire Boulevard, he placed a fire-starting device on the floor. A security guard spotted the object. He took a closer look, and decided to snap a photograph. That photo is now considered key evidence linking the 24-year-old German national to a four-day arson rampage that kept parts of Los Angeles on edge, according to law enforcement sources who described the scene at the consulate.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada -- Once Dorothee Burkhart had squeezed through a window and escaped, only two things mattered: Finding Harry and getting out of Germany. It was September 2007 in Frankfurt. Four months earlier, police had arrested Burkhart in a string of thefts and sent her to a woman's prison to await trial. Separated from Harry, her 19-year-old son who suffered from a slew of mental disabilities, she had grown increasingly anxious. Without her, Harry was alone and unprotected in a city that she believed was filled with people set on hurting them.

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada, and Los Angeles -- The investigation of Hollywood arson suspect Harry Burkhart widened Thursday to include a probe by Canadian authorities into whether he was involved in a series of suspicious fires in Vancouver. Burkhart, who has been charged with 37 felony counts related to the New Year's weekend arson rampage, lived in Vancouver with his mother before moving to the Los Angeles area. Vancouver Police Department spokesman Lindsey Houghton said officials "have begun to liaise with the LAPD" but stressed that detectives have not connected Burkhart to any specific fires in that city.

Hollywood arson suspect Harry Burkhart terrorized Los Angeles residents with a four-day rampage over New Year's weekend because he was "motivated by his rage against Americans," prosecutors alleged in court papers filed Wednesday. Burkhart appeared in court briefly to be arraigned on 37 felony counts of arson that could send him to prison for life. He looked disheveled and distracted as jail authorities have him under suicide watch. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Upinder S. Kalra set bail at $2.85 million and agreed to postpone arraignment until Jan. 24 at the request of Burkhart's public defender.

A crowd of reporters huddled outside the West Hollywood station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday evening with the hopes of answering one question: Who is Shervin Lalezary? Ever since early Monday morning, when the volunteer deputy was vaulted into the limelight after nabbing the suspect in more than 50 fires, the attorney-by-day has insisted on a low profile. Before he approached the cameras Tuesday, the gaggle of waiting reporters wondered aloud about the 30-year-old.

A 72-year-old woman admitted paying her teenage grandson $150 to set fire to her landlord's house days after she received an eviction notice. Nola Mae Williams pleaded guilty in Stafford to arson, breaking and entering with the intent to commit arson, and criminal solicitation of a felony. Charges against the 15-year-old boy were handled in closed juvenile court. Williams was ordered jailed without bond until her Feb. 2 sentencing.

For months, authorities scoured West Hollywood, carrying a photo of a squat, green-eyed woman through a bustling hive of Russian-language social clubs and cafes selling borscht and vareniki dumplings. She was Dorothee Burkhart, a fugitive wanted on a host of fraud charges in Germany. Dorothee Burkhart was eventually arrested here and, last Thursday, she was in a courtroom for a hearing to extradite her to Frankfurt to face the charges. Within hours, an arsonist began setting fires across a wide, significant portion of Los Angeles in a four-day assault that caused millions of dollars in damage and left many residents on edge.

They erupted almost simultaneously, a sudden barrage of fires about 1:30 a.m. that signaled the fourth night of an arsonist's rampage. In 90 minutes, nearly a dozen vehicles had gone up in flames on both sides of the Hollywood Hills. But this time, early Monday, police finally had an edge. Hours before the fires began, federal officials alerted authorities that a Los Angeles man might be the suspect they were looking for, according to law enforcement sources. The man had recently made a scene at a Los Angeles Immigration Court hearing, the sources said.