Five San Diego firm officials enter not guilty pleas to charges stemming from Casa de Vallejo fire
Defendants charged with manslaughter, elder abuse
By Tony Burchyns / Times-Herald
07/07/2010
FAIRFIELD –
Five officials of an affordable housing company pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to criminal charges stemming from the 2008 Casa de Vallejo fire that killed three people.
Appearing in Solano County Superior Court Commissioner Barbara James' courtroom were Amerland Group co-founders Jules Arthur, 44, and Ruben Islas, 41; Martha Islas-Enriquez, 38, chief executive officer of Vallejo Housing Partners; Michael Hagigeorgio, 32, project manager for the building's fire alarm system; and Jeremy Turner, 31, director of construction management.
The five are either executives or managers at the company that owns the building that housed the seniors home.
Solano County District Attorney David Paulson in June charged each with two counts of manslaughter, two counts of elder abuse causing death and one count of elder abuse, naming 119 victims.
A preliminary hearing will be set in August. Each defendant faces a maximum punishment of 18 years in state prison if found guilty on all of the charges.
Three residents died in the Aug. 15, 2008 blaze that revealed inoperable fire alarms in the historic Sonoma Boulevard building. The early morning fire also displaced 117 tenants.
The defendants, all of San Diego, appeared with separate attorneys. None would comment after the brief hearing. They were arrested June 23 and 24 in San Diego County and have posted the $250,000 bond set for their release.
Those who died in, or immediately following, the eight-alarm fire were John Argente, 74; Robert Bennett, 68; and Harold Fortune, 61.
An investigation revealed that Bennett, a sixth-floor resident, sparked the blaze while asleep in his room with a lit cigar. Bennett was on a medical oxygen tank at the time, authorities said.
The probe also found that the 136-unit building's fire alarms had been disconnected two months earlier during rehabilitation work on the structure.
In 2005, the Vallejo City Council approved the owners' application for $10 million in state bonds to acquire and rehabilitate the residential rental facility.
For the owners to be eligible for the funding, the building had to be occupied, in part, by low-income
SOURCE: Times Herald
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