OAKLAND — The man authorities believe organized the doomed Dec. 2 Ghost Ship warehouse party where 36 people died in a horrific fire appeared in court Monday for the first time.
Max Harris, 27, did not enter a plea at the brief hearing before Alameda County Judge Thomas Nixon. By waiving a formal arraignment proceeding through his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Jody Nuñez, Harris is now considered arraigned on 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, Nuñez said outside of court.
Harris, who was the Ghost Ship’s creative director, is scheduled to appear in court again Thursday alongside Ghost Ship founder Derick Almena, who faces the same charges; that they knowingly allowed the warehouse, packed with flammable materials, to become a fire danger but still rented it out for parties. Both men are being held on $1,080,000 bail.
Harris was arrested while living in a converted commercial space in Los Angeles a week ago. He was transfered to Alameda County late last week.
Investigators allege that Harris blocked off one of only two escape routes from the second floor where Ghost Ship guests died of smoke inhalation. Harris had acted as the doorman that night.
In Monday’s short hearing, Harris, wearing a red prison-issued jump suit, appeared in a glass holding cell and did not say a word. Five of his supporters sat in court, left holding hands, and did not speak to reporters outside. A dozen family members of victims appeared for Almena’s hearing last week, but did not attend Monday’s hearing.
Nuñez declined to discuss the charges against Harris. So did prosecutor David Lim.
Almena’s arraignment last week was postponed as prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to wait until Harris returned from Southern California so they could coordinate the cases. Both men are being held in protective custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Almena is represented pro bono by famed San Francisco attorney Tony Serra, who said last week that both defendants are indigent.
At a raucous news conference at his North Beach office on Friday, Serra repeatedly claimed that the deadly fire did not involve a crime and described both men as scapegoats for what he called the failings of the Oakland Fire Department and other public agencies to prevent the blaze. He also said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley is prosecuting the case just to further her goal of becoming state Attorney General. A spokesperson for O’Malley denied the claim.
In an interview with this news organization shortly after the fire, Harris spoke about the plans for the party.
“I was getting ready for the event, cleaning up, closing off areas, preparing to welcome people into the space. I was moving furniture around to change things up,” he said at the time.
When Almena was away, Harris would collect rent, former residents and prosecutors have said. After the December fire, he took to social media to ask for financial support as he grieved the loss of friends and his home.
Prosecutors claim the men forced residents to use “nonconventional” and highly flammable items in creating Ghost Ship living spaces that violated fire codes. They also altered the interior of the warehouse by building a bathroom, cutting a doorway into a wall and a hole in the roof, and opening a previously sealed window in an adjacent building wall, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
As the investigation intensified, Harris moved south, to an old brick building historically used as retail stores dating back to its construction in 1924, according to Los Angeles city records. A Los Angeles planning department spokeswoman said the zoning would not allow for anyone to live inside, similar to the Ghost Ship living situation.
