3 Acquitted of Arson Despite Videotape of Fire

A Ventura County Superior Court judge on Wednesday acquitted three men of arson, even though they made a videotape of the fire and one of them admitted starting it.

“This is going to be a classic,” John Daniels said on the tape of the fire, which also included scenes of the men committing vandalism at other locations.

“Do you know how fun this is?” Daniels said on the tape. He admitted in court that he dropped a lighted flare into the portable toilet.

But while the men might have committed vandalism elsewhere, might have started the outhouse fire and might have enjoyed watching it, there was insufficient evidence that they intended to set the fire, Judge Charles R. McGrath said.

McGrath acquitted the trio of arson, telling the prosecutor: “I guess your life experience is different from mine, but there’s nothing obvious to me that dropping a flare down a toilet is going to start a fire.”

David Cotner, 20, Daniel Berg, 22, and Daniels, 23, were accused of deliberately burning down the portable toilet Feb. 19.

No one was injured in the fire, which occurred at a construction site on Walter Street in Ventura.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Simon said he was shocked that the judge, after viewing the videotape, could believe that the men did not mean to set the fire.

The three men recorded several acts of vandalism on the tape. The tape opens at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, where they broke a parking gate, sprayed fire-extinguisher foam in a hallway and activated fire alarms.

It also shows Cotner and Daniels vandalizing a Fotomat booth in Ventura where Cotner used to work. They used a rubber stamp to make ink marks throughout the interior of the booth and mixed the photos so some customers would get the wrong snapshots.

The tape also shows the men mimicking movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, giving thumbs up and thumbs down to the various acts of vandalism.

On the way to the construction site, the men passed a stack of wooden pallets and decided to videotape themselves putting the pallets across the road.

“Why did you put the pallets there?” Simon asked Cotner.

“They were there and we were bored,” he replied. “There was nothing dumber in the vicinity to do.”

Daniels gave a similar explanation: “We thought it would be somewhat droll to put them across the road.”

At the construction site, Daniels said, he and Berg decided to see how their video camera worked in low-light situations, using the light from the flare. After conducting the tests, Daniels said, he decided to dispose of the flare by dropping it into the portable toilet.

“We weren’t trying to burn anything,” he said. “We were just trying to dispose of it.”

Shortly afterward they saw a flash of light and realized that the outhouse was on fire, Daniels testified.

They decided to call the Fire Department and then videotaped the firefighters responding.

Ventura Fire Capt. Roger Morgenthaler testified that the firetruck had to stop on the way because of the wooden pallets stretched across the street. Daniels denied that they intended to block the firetruck.

After the verdict, Simon said he was angry with McGrath.

“Those pallets in the road could have killed somebody,” he said. “If they keep doing this stuff, they will kill somebody. Judge McGrath has given them a license to do that.”

Cotner and Daniels pleaded guilty before the trial to malicious mischief in the Fotomat vandalism.

They will be sentenced May 3 and face up to 180 days in jail.