And how did that work for you? Oh, no, it

was good.

Very good.

Yeah, because we had guys like, as I say, Wayne Robinson, Donnie Mann, Joe Cowan, Brian Tracy, Davey Wong.

the Rota family, all these sort of guys that you could rely on.

John O'Sullivan, if one time there we were playing against Cronulla and we happened to beat Cronulla, but that day I dived on the ball and somebody had come in and accidentally kicked me in the head and sort of made me... a bit concussed.

So when we went in at halftime, Donnie just said to me, okay, I says, well, not really.

The coaching, who's been the coach who's had the biggest impact on Roger Bailey's playing career?

Does a 10-2 split in the jury, does that surprise you at all?

Well, you know, you'll remember the first time we spoke about the arson trial, I had gone in for opening statements, and I spoke with you that day and said, I don't think the government has a solid case.

And you saw that echoed today.

In the hung jury, as of this morning, it was actually 11 to 1 not guilty.

And this morning, one of the jurors switched over to guilty.

But still 10 to 2 sends a pretty strong message that the government's case was weak.

And it really was.

And isn't he responsible for for that, for for starting the chain of events?

And isn't he responsible for for that, for for starting the chain of events?

No.

First of all, again, you and I are going to disagree on this.

I think the evidence that they had of him being up there and him hating the world and, you know, everybody wants to be able to point to someone and say you're to blame.

But with all the witnesses that came in and said they saw fireworks and then seconds later saw fire right after the fireworks fell from the sky and then there was witness testimony of four young people running down the hill at the same time, There was so much that was left open, even for the Lachman fire, that you had at least 10 of these jurors that said, no, you didn't prove it.

And then one step further is, even if he had started the Lachman fire, the judge prohibited the defense from bringing in evidence of the failures by LAFD or the state park.

The employees that were up there and saw the smoke and did nothing about it, the judge prohibited all of that.

Well, who's the other suspect here? Who's the other candidate?

Does a 10-2 split in the jury, does that surprise you at all?

Well, you know, you'll remember the first time we spoke about the arson trial, I had gone in for opening statements, and I spoke with you that day and said, I don't think the government has a solid case.

And you saw that echoed today.

in the hung jury, and as of this morning, it was actually 11 to 1 not guilty, and this morning, one of the jurors switched over to guilty, but still 10 to 2 sends a pretty strong message that the government's case was weak, and it really was, and I'll give you a further thought on it, because at least one of the jurors has spoken publicly about it.

This whole notion that there was only one fire and This thing burned underground undetected for six days just didn't square with reality.

You know, smoke was coming out of the ground for six days.

Hikers are up there, you know, filming it.

Well, who's the other suspect here? Who's the other candidate?

Correct me if I'm wrong, you don't think this is a slam-dunk case against Reiternacht?

Well, I'll tell you, I attended the criminal trial this week, and having seen what I saw, I think that government has a real uphill battle.

You'll remember that the federal government charged the defendant with committing arson, and that arson resulted in the entire Palisades community burning down.

But what people didn't understand is that there were actually two separate fires, one on January 1 that burned only eight acres of brush.

And then six days later, you had embers rekindling and starting a second fire called the Palisades Fire, And that's what burned down the palisades and portions of Malibu.

And the government's trying to connect those two separate fires as one fire.

And I'll tell you, yesterday, it came out in cross-exam that the ATF interviewed more than 12 people.

How would this verdict affect the lawsuit, if at all?

think most people just think it's

a retail park now and that's all.

It is.

Who knows if the underground is still there.

There was an underground factory underneath it.

World War II, they used to make things underneath.

There was a bit of a hospital there and all sorts of things.

what place does the local authority play in uh supporting the future of industry

You think the evidence for that is weak?

Well, yeah, here's what I heard in the opening statement today.

You know, they, and by the way, listening to what the government did to this kid, I mean, they got search warrants.

They tore apart his whole life, went through his apartment.

They went through all of his social media accounts.

I mean, it's frightening to listen to what they did.

But they found a lighter in his glove box, but it's a regular Bic lighter.

So they're trying to paint his character as that of a crazed arsonist.

So the fire department couldn't use the bulldozers to create a fire break?

Right.

The state's policy.

Now, remember, once this was determined to be the Lockman fire, the January 1 fire, once that was determined to be burning on state land, the LAFD calls for a state park rep to come.

And that's where you see, you know, Christie's saying she's on route.

And when they get there, their job is to interact with the firefighters.

And then these READs come in and make sure that these protected plants aren't disturbed as a result of a firefight or the mop-up.

What's one of your targets here? What do you want to know on behalf of your clients?

So the fire department couldn't use the bulldozers to create a fire break?

Right.

The state's policy.

Now, remember, once this was determined to be the Lockman fire, the January 1 fire, once that was determined to be burning on state land, the LAFD calls for a state park rep to come.

And that's where you see, you know, Christy saying she's on route.

And when they get there, their job is to interact with the firefighters.

And then these READs come in and make sure that these protected plants aren't disturbed as a result of a firefight or the mop-up.

What's one of your targets here? What do you want to know on behalf of your clients?

I mean, there's some kind of massive neglect and incompetence going on here that the fire commanders didn't keep a crew there or have one show up on January 7th.

Now, that's exactly right.

This was a small fire, relatively speaking, on January 1.

And the protocol is when you declare a fire fully contained or extinguished, you position watch crews there.

And, you know, they even have these thermal scopes that can detect heat in the ground and everything.

So there's a protocol that they follow.

But this Palisades fire, the other thing the U.S. attorney confirmed is that the Palisades fire started on state land.

So what else did you hear that bolsters or changes your case today?