#grieving relatives

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OAKLAND, Calif. | Judge set to sentence men in deadly Oakland warehouse fire

OAKLAND, Calif. — Two men who accepted a deal in exchange for each pleading no contest to 36 charges of involuntary manslaughter in connection with a California warehouse fire will likely be released from prison after serving just half their sentences.

It’s typical for California prison inmates who keep a good disciplinary record to be released after serving half their terms.

Judge James Cramer on Friday is expected to sentence 48-year-old Derick Almena to nine years in prison and 28-year-old Max Harris to six years, even though relatives of victims of the 2016 blaze in Oakland have slammed the proposed sentences as too lenient.

Tearful, grieving relatives testified Thursday about their losses and asked Cramer to reject the deal, but he gave no indication that he would comply with the request.

A prosecutor said the two men had turned the warehouse into a residential “death trap” by cluttering it with highly flammable knick-knacks, blocking the building’s few exits and failing to make adequate safety precautions before inviting the public inside.

Speakers at the hearing also criticized the city over the devastating fire.

“The city of Oakland should be held accountable” for failing to inspect and shut down the warehouse, Colleen Dolan said as she showed a photo of her smiling 33-year-old daughter, Chelsea Dolan, that had been taken a few weeks before her death.

Dolan also tried to display a coroner’s photo of her daughter’s charred body, but Cramer gently interrupted her and said he had previously seen it.

“I had to kiss that burned body goodbye,” Dolan said, agreeing to comply. “I am angry and bereft.”

Moments later, Cramer politely interrupted Paul Matiasic, an attorney reading a statement by Sami Long Koppelman, whose 34-year-old son, Edmond William Lapine, was killed.

Mataiasic asked the judge rhetorically if he had ever lost a child. “Yes, I have,” Cramer said with a sad smile. “Just so you know.”

Many people in the courtroom gasped. The judge did not elaborate. Cyrus Hoda, the brother of victim Sarah Hoda, 30, said the plea bargain was a “sweetheart deal” and labeled Almena and Harris as “culture vultures” trying to become San Francisco Bay Area arts players by luring people to a dangerous place to live and party.

Almena’s wife and three children also lived in the warehouse but were staying in a nearby hotel the night of the fire. His wife, Micah Allison, and one of their daughters sat quietly in court alongside the grieving families.

Dressed in jail garb, Almena looked unemotionally at the relatives as they testified, while Harris stared at the judge, who approved the plea deal last month.

Cramer told relatives of victims to try to keep their emotions in check during the testimony, which he said would be “a heart-wrenching hearing as befits the enormous loss in this case.”

Almena and Harris could have faced life in prison if convicted at a trial. They already have spent a year behind bars.

Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were unable to determine a cause of the blaze.

Victims’ relatives allege in lawsuits that the Oakland Fire Department failed to inspect the warehouse annually as required and that inspectors would have discovered the illegal conversions. Alex Katz, a spokesman for the city attorney, declined to comment. The lawsuits also claim Pacific Gas & Electric Co. failed to properly monitor, inspect and repair electrical equipment that provided power to the warehouse.

PG&E said in a statement that it cooperated with the investigation and that a review of its records found no electrical problems at the building in the 10 years before the fire.

Warehouse owner Chor Ng, who has not been charged, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

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New Post has been published on http://www.therakyatpost.com/world/2014/07/23/first-mh17-bodies-arrive-netherlands-nation-mourns/

First MH17 bodies arrive in Netherlands as nation mourns

EINDHOVEN, July 23:

The first bodies from flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday, almost a week after it was shot down over Ukraine, with grieving relatives and the king and queen solemnly receiving the as yet unidentified victims.

Church bells rang out throughout the country as the planes touched down with the much-delayed return of the first 40 bodies of the 298 people killed in the disaster, most of them Dutch.

In a reminder of the ongoing war that is hampering recovery and investigation efforts, the Ukrainian military said that two of its fighter jets had been shot down on Wednesday, possibly close to the Boeing’s crash site.

The Netherlands has been united in grief and growing anger because of delays in getting bodies home and over the way pro-Russian separatists have treated the crash site, bodies and personal possessions.

The planes left from Kharkiv in Ukraine, where the bodies were given a dignified ceremony as they were carried on board by army cadets before a small party of officials.

 1,000 bereaved

Around 1,000 bereaved relatives of the 193 Dutch dead, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and representatives of the other nations that lost citizens on the flight met the planes.

The bodies are to be transferred to a military base at Hilversum, southeast of Amsterdam, where forensics experts will identify them.

Flags of the 11 nations that lost citizens in the crash flew at half mast at the airport.

Uniformed members of the Dutch military marched to the planes to unload the wooden coffins, while a trumpeter played the Last Post and Reveille.

Motorways along the 100-km route from Eindhoven to Hilversum have been closed for the long convoy of hearses to pass, one coffin per car.

A minute’s silence was observed nationwide, during which no flights landed or took off at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, from where the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight took off on Thursday.

United States intelligence officials have said they believe rebels mistakenly shot down the plane that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with a surface-to-air missile.

The rebels on Wednesday used rockets to shoot down two Ukrainian Sukhoi fighter jets, although it was not clear exactly how far away from the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

Both pilots managed to parachute out, military spokesman Vladislav Seleznev said of the shooting down possibly as close as 25km from the MH17 crash site.

 Unrecovered bodies

Experts and world leaders have expressed concern that not all the remains have been recovered from the sprawling crash site in rebel-held territory.

“It’s quite possible that many bodies are still out there, in the open in the European summer, subject to interference, and subject to the ravages of heat and animals,” said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 nationals.

Dutch Foreign minister Frans Timmermans and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop will travel together to Ukraine on Thursday for talks about completing the repatriation of bodies and the crash probe, the foreign ministry said.

The rebels controlling the crash site released some bodies and handed over two black boxes to Malaysian officials only after intense international pressure.

The black boxes were delivered to Britain for expert analysis, including whether they might have been tampered with, on Wednesday.

DNA samples taken

Rutte has warned that it could take weeks or even months for the bodies to be identified, although some are expected to be handed over to families soon.

Dutch police have been visiting the bereaved for counselling but also to retrieve DNA samples such as from hairbrushes, details of tattoos and fingerprints, as well as medical and dental records, to help with the identification task.

A truce has been declared by rival sides around the crash impact site, but international investigators still face massive obstacles.

Dutch officials confirmed receipt of only 200 of the 298 victims’ bodies.

International monitors said more remains were left at the vast crash site, littered with poignant fragments from hundreds of destroyed lives.

Kiev said the Netherlands and other countries that lost citizens are proposing to send police officers to secure the site, amid concerns that vital evidence has been tampered with.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged to “do everything” to influence the separatists and ensure a full probe into the crash.

Putin is staring down fresh European sanctions just a week after the latest set was unveiled over its role in the Ukraine crisis, which has chilled East-West tensions to the lowest point in years.