Attorney calls plea deal motion ‘shallow’

Laywer for one of the victim’s mothers says Almena pointing finger at everyone but himself

OAKLAND » The attorney of one of the Ghost Ship victims mother’s reacted to the defendant’s motion made public Monday, saying that Derick Almena is pointing the finger at everyone else, but himself.

The attorney who represents Sami Long Kopelman, the mother of 34-year-old Edmond Lapine, who perished along with 35 others at the warehouse fire on Dec. 2, 2016, reacted to the motion that asked for the plea deal to be reinstated. The plea bargain that defendants Almena and Max Harris had agreed to for their charges of 36 counts each of involuntary manslaughter, was rejected earlier this month by Judge James Cramer. They would have received nine years and six years in jail, respectively.

“The motion filed yesterday by the attorneys for Mr. Almena demonstrates that his propensity to point the finger in every direction other than at himself knows no limits,” said Paul Matiasic in a statement Tuesday.

During a two-day sentencing hearing for Almena and Harris, Matiasic read out loud Kopelman’s victim impact statement for the court. In it, she addressed the judge directly, saying something to the effect that unless he had lost a child then he couldn’t know what it felt like. Cramer

stopped the attorney from reading and said in open court “I have,” indicating he had lost a child.

In the motion, Serra writes that he nearly “fell off his chair” when he heard the judge’s response and says he would have tried replacing the judge, had he known of that conflict of interest.

“The argument that the

judge should not have presided over the sentencing due to his own life experiences is as shallow in its creativity as it is unsupported in the law,” Matiasic said.

In the motion, Almena’s attorney Tony Serra argues that Cramer gave his word that he would go along with the negotiated plea deal, which had been brokered by Judge Morris Jacobson, who was unavailable for the sentencing for personal, unknown reasons.

Matiasic said that Almena’s

argument that the judge had an obligation to merely go along with the plea deal would mean that the victim impact statements, two days worth, were “mere procedural nicety — which they are not.”

After hearing the impact statements, in handing down his decision Cramer indicated that he felt that Almena was not remorseful enough in his statements, and therefore rejected the plea deal. Although he said he felt Harris took responsibility in his statements, the

plea bargain was a package deal, and both were rejected.

Matiasic said the judge was impartial when he rejected the plea.

“The rejection of the plea deal clearly was borne out of Almena’s utter inability to demonstrate contrition,” he said. In his statement to the court during the sentencing hearing, Almena said that he would have given up his own children’s lives, and would have died along with the 36 people, a statement that some victim’s family members took offense to.

“If I could give each of you my life, and my children’s lives, I would,” Almena said.

“I should have died that night. It would have been an honor to try and save your families’ souls,” Almena said. “I’m guilty. I’m guilty for believing we were safe.” He and his family stayed in an Oakland hotel that night when a dance party inside the warehouse went so wrong.

Almena and Harris are due back in court on Sept. 7 to set a potential trial date, which is expected in January or February.