“A 10 to 2 verdict for acquittal” is resounding, veteran L.A. County Sheriff’s Department arson investigator Ed Nordskog tells me. Just days before, a mistrial had been declared in the case of United States v. Jonathan Rinderknecht, the 30-year-old man who had been accused of setting the Palisades Fire, which took out more than half of the town in January 2025. “I was expecting 6-6,” Nordskog continues. “I knew there was no case as soon as I saw the original reports. The prosecution had no evidence. Having a lighter is not a crime. They went after his character instead. But motive is not evidence.”

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