serve, to be accountable and to have the courage that when something goes wrong, to step forward and say, you know what? we made a mistake, even if there are 36 people who died. the community needs that from the city of oakland. the community cannot be safe until we get accountable leadership in the city and in the county. and that's been the -- not the biggest tragedy but next to the loss of lives and the tremendous impact on everybody who lost loved ones, that's been the biggest tragedy here is not one oakland city official has stepped forward and said, this is how we're going to fix it. this is how we're going to make this community better. this is what we did wrong. not one city official had the courage to get up on the witness stand and tell the truth. you know, it was just very, very

sad and this isn't a time to celebrate for max harris because this community's sick. this community's sick because the leadership is sick, and we need reform. and we need a change. and that's our challenge to the leaders here in this city, if you care about this city, you have pride and integrity, then do something and be honest about it. >> max -- two and a half years behind bars. what's next for him? how will he get his life back together after all this? >> it's going to start with a nice vegan meal that's not served by santa rita jail and we'll take it from there. >> once he found out the verdict, what were his first responses and reactions? >> he tried to stop me from crying and he was emotional and we were all emotional and we didn't really say much. >> curtis, the family --

>> first, i want to say i'm sorry as somebody who's lost a child, i understand the pain and i know that they likely will never be able to find peace with what happened and that i apologize if anything that we did inflamed them. i was always under the belief that max harris was innocent and i did what i had to do to get him home. and our hearts are with those families and everybody who's been victimized by this tragedy. i'm going to turn this over to my co-counsel tyler smith to make a statement. >> you know, none of this ever would have happened in the first place if the income inequality, the injustice with respect to

the income inequality and the housing crisis weren't as bad, wasn't permitted to get as it has gotten in the bay area and in oakland in the last few years. these artists were living in this warehouse because they didn't have too many other options. they were going to be on the street otherwise. they were living there, in essence, out of necessity, and there were many other warehouses in oakland, very similar as the ghost ship warehouse and the reason they're there is because of the housing crisis that we're facing, so i hope that the oakland city -- that the leaders of the city of oakland, mayor schaaf and others take real measurable steps to address this issue first and foremost. so i echo my colleague's comments that change and reform really needs to happen. with that said, we're incredibly sorrowful. we always have been very

sorrowful for the families. it's an incredible loss that they suffered. this is something that, you know, we've been a little bit hamstrung from saying to the media while the trial was going on, while the jury was deliberating, but now that they've reached a verdict, we can really let them know how truly sorry and sad for them that we are. max is incredibly sorry and sad for them. he's always expressed his remorse, his wish that he could have done something different to save someone that died that night. we're incredibly grateful to all the members of the jury, all of the alternates. every juror that sat there through these six months was incredibly gracious to give all of their time and undivided attention and it was -- it took

a lot of hard work for them to get to this but they listened to all of the evidence very carefully so i really commend all of them. they did a fantastic job and we're very grateful that they were able to come to the not guilty verdict. >> what happens with max? what are the next steps? >> we don't have any >> is it the plan now, i understand -- >> yeah. immediately in a bureaucratic sense. we don't know what that means so we don't know when he's going to be released and we don't know where he's going to be released from, so we don't want to make too many comments regarding that. we're just -- we'd be speculating at this point. >> i expect he'll be out today but i just don't -- we can't get any answers. the sheriff's department is inevitably responsible for releasing him so you'd have to direct your questions to them. almost two and a half years.

>> was it like december or january -- >> it was six months after the fire so it was about may. may or june. james is going to make a statement. >> it's been an honor fighting for an innocent, brilliant artist who never should have been charged in the first place who had seemingly unlimited amounts of government resources and a government machine geared towards proving his guilt. despite all of the facts showing his innocence. and doing so to pursue their own political agenda, and i would also just like to echo statements of my colleagues regarding the enormous amount of support that max harris had from family and friends and people who became aware of the injustice of him being charged

in the first place. and who voiced their concerns and voiced their support. they have made a concrete difference in a case by keeping max harris -- >> we're listening in on max harris's defense team, thanking the jurors, expressing their sorrow for the families who lost loved ones but also putting the responsibility at the doorsteps of the city. >> without question. >> everything from inspections to the housing crisis. right now, we want to take you to the defense side -- or i could say almena's defense, ryan is speaking. >> the fact that there was the most unspeaable -- loss of life. and so, while he's happy in a sense to be unconvicted, he's

very unhappy when he thinks about what happened and the fact that that can never be repaired. and i join him in those sentiments. for me, the overwhelming aspect of this case was always the loss of life and the hard break that these families suffered and i never thought that the trial should have been held against derrick because i didn't feel in my heart that he was responsible for any more than a lot of other people were responsible for it, and there was -- >> who's responsible? >> who's responsible for it are the people governing a society where we are in one of the richest areas in the nation and you step over bodies every time you across the street and people are starving and there's mentally ill everywhere and these people like derrick take a

warehouse and get people out of the gutter and put a roof over their head and don't have the money to furnish it according to the laws of oakland and that's why this happened. so, in my view, there is a moral imperative here that's a reflection of society as a whole where we are turning our backs on the neediest who are all around us, particularly right here in oakland. >> why do you believe that max harris was acquitted on all counts and daenl, you knerrick know, a hung jury? >> i don't know that the disparity of the evidence was so great between one or the other, but i can only tell you i think max harris is a well meaning, wonderful individual. i just spent the last six months with him sitting at counsel table and he is one of the most sensitive, thoughtful people i

have ever met, and i don't know the answer, but i do know that he deserved what he got from this verdict. >> what is next for derrick almena? >> we return on october 4th for a trial date setting. >> when you talk about the loss of life and you're really distraught about it yourself, should derrick almena be held responsible for that? many of the families believe he should. >> i understand that completely, and i think in a moral sense, he is responsible but whether legally he should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, i don't know about that. he's not a criminal. he's not a criminal type. he never in his life has hurt anybody. he's never done anything wrong to anyone. he's never had a bad thought toward anyone, and he tried to put together this utopian society where people could come off the street and live among artists and he didn't have money for sprinklers.

he didn't have money for fire extinguishers. he didn't have electric exit signs. he didn't have all the things that oakland code calls for, yes, that's true, so he's morally responsible, but he never meant for this to happen. he was -- he was thunder struck when it happened, and he's forever remorseful about the loss of life. >> and you talk, he has a wife and children as well. >> he has a wife and three children that are waiting to hear from me. >> brian, you talked about october 4th for the trial date. what's next, another trial, a different trial? >> when there's a mistrial as there has been here, then generally speaking the court sets a new trial date and i would anticipate that to happen. if it goes that far. >> do you think it will? >> we'll see. >> you're really emotional about this, ryan. blame the city, i hear that from you. >> i don't know that i blame any

particular entity. i think the tragedy happened because of a combination of circumstances -- >> incompetence. >> i don't really think that it's possible to identify one source, and i just don't know. >> curtis. >> someone else. >> so, brian gets very emotional there, derrick almena's attorney, and there's a lot discussed here. i mean, we have a lot of things going on. you have the ultimate sadness because of the loss of life. you have the family members who are grieving who were anticipating maybe a particular verdict and then they did not get that. we have one man who is free and that's max harris. the news that we just got on derrick almena is that there at least has been a date set and that is october 4th. now, we need to get a real legal opinion on this as to whether we know for sure that there's going to be another full blown trial

or whether the prosecution and the city has to decide, do we want to go through with another full trial and the other piece of information that we have is the 10-2 verdict. >> yes. ten of the jurors voting guilty for derrick almena and two saying not guilty, hence the deadlocked jury. and the hung jury. and the mistrial on his part. i just got the answer back to what you were asking about. >> all right. >> that october 4th date. from david lynn, who as you know was the prosecutor on the ghost ship case. he is now in private practice. i posed that question to him and he says that october 4th is a control date and so it's a default, as we were conjecturing, it's not like the d.a. made this big announcement or anything saying we're going to retry him. it's a control date. at that time, the d.a. will announce whether or not they will retry the case or not. so they do have a little time here to decide which presumably will involve talking to the

families. >> sure. >> who have been through so much already, right? and this d.a. has included the family, every part of this process, including the rejection of the plea deal. so, that could be back on the table, actually. that is one option. >> well, it becomes interesting when you look at a 10-2 decision and i'm sure some of the prosecution -- it's just so sad when you look at the faces of the lives lost. i mean, that's the one thing that we -- we have to continue to emphasize is that no matter what happens with these two gentlemen that were tried, we're never going to see those 36 people again and that's -- that's the ultimate sadness. laura anthony is standing by now at the courthouse and you have been covering this case from day one, laura. >> reporter: yeah, hi, larry, and i was actually inside the courtroom for the reading of these verdicts, it was really quite a scene inside there. we got word just before noon that these verdicts were coming in or a verdict was coming in at

2:00. there was quite a rush to get outside the doors of the courtroom. department nine on the fifth floor here. at 2:00, we were let in but only so many people could get in. first they let the family members, about three dozen, members of the media and a couple members, as far as i could tell, of the public. a few minutes after 2:00, the jury filed in, of course both defendants were there with their attorneys, and it was quite a strange scene when the judge asked for the verdict sheets from the foreman of the jury. he handed the clerk an envelope and it was handed to the judge and she was going through the sheets and of course there's 36 verdicts for each count for each defendant and you could tell as she was looking through those sheets that something wasn't quite right. finally, she said, jurors, addressed them directly, and said, i have completed verdict sheets for one defendant but not for the other. to which there was a bit of a

gasp in the courtroom because we were expecting to hear verdicts for both defendants. at that point, she sent the jury -- she accepted the verdicts for one of the defendants, didn't say who it was, sealed that envelope, and then sent the jury back into the deliberation room for a period of about 20 minutes and honestly, at that point, we didn't know what was going on, if they had a verdict on one but not the other, perhaps both, but didn't just fill the sheets out correctly, so then about 20 minutes later, about 2:20 by my count, the jury came back in with another envelope, handed it to the judge, and at that point, the clerk proceeded to read the verdicts. max harris was the first one that was read because he is what they call the "a" defendant in the case. his name was first on the complaint. and of course when they read the first count, count one, not guilty, folks knew at that point that it was probably going to go that way for the remaining 35 counts and it did and it took

about 12 minutes for the clerk to read all 36 pieces of paper. there's a bit of language on there about what the charge is, not guilty, he read thedefeans that point, we saw the attorneys with max harris begin to cry. i could not see from my vantage point if max was crying. i could tell that some of the folks to my left who were the family members of the victims began to cry, several of them almost inconsolable as these not guilty verdicts were read one by one. then they got to derrick almena, and and while they let max harris and his attorneys leave the courtroom and of course they were jubilant and of course the judge went on to derrick almena, we learned that the jury was deadlocked 10-2 in favor of guilt and the judge had a side bar with the attorneys and then declared a mistrial, saying that the jury appeared to be hopelessly deadlocked. >> laura, did you see almena's

family members? he lived there with his wife and three children. were any of them there today and how did they react? >> reporter: kristen, no, they were not there. the only people i saw in support of the defendants were the row directly in front of me and i know from covering the trial that those are supporters of max harris, not family members. there have been family members here throughout the trial on and off, particularly an aunt and uncle who live up in the seattle area but today, we did not see them. the folks in the front row or the second row right in front of me were supporters of max harris's. to my knowledge, i did not see any family members of derrick almena's and we were told quite a while ago that his wife, in particular, micah allison was not going to come for the verdict, that it would be a bit too difficult for her and so she's choosing or she was stay away. the advice of the i think we have somebody at the

podium rightno this iry. >> that's mary alexander, the civil suit attorney. as you know, there's a civil suit that is still proceeding separate from the criminal trial in which the city is also named along with pg&e and this is where max harris was talking about laying responsibility at the city. let's go ahead and try to listen to what mary alexander has to say there as she appears to be getting ready. about to be paying close attention to the entire criminal trial as it will pertain to her case. >> i'm mary alexander, the lead counsel in the civil case, and we want to complete the circle of justice that the families are disappointed in the verdicts today, the results of today. we look forward to proving the case against the city of oakland that failed the public, that failed the people who came into

this building. the city knew, police knew, firemen knew that this place had people living in it, that they were using it like a cabaret, that there were events that were happening, and they failed to stop it and to protect people and as a result, these 36 beautiful young people died. as well as proving our case against the inges, the owner of this building that had the duty, the nondellable duty, they didn't delegate it to harris and almena, duty to make this a safe building so that the people could get out in the fire and they didn't do it. they failed the public. and also against pg&e who supplied electricity. there was testimony in this trial that it was electrical caused to the fire and that pg&e failed to make this building safe and provide the safety that was required by law. so we'll have a trial in may and

we look forward to proving the case. some of the family members feel the results of today are because of the failure of the city and pg&e and the inges and others to protect public and that that's where the fault lies. thank you very much. >> can i ask you a question? do you think it hurts you at all in your civil case that the jury indicated that they -- >> we do not feel that the results of criminal case hurt our case in the civil trial at all. because of the negligence and the uncaring and the disregard for the safety and health of the public by the city of oakland, by the building owner, by pg&e. thank you. >> mary alexander and this is

far from over because we still have to have a decision from the prosecution on whether they're going to retry derrick almena and now there's going to be a whole other civil case in which you heard the attorney say they want the completion, the circle of justice there and they're going to go after the city of oakland as well as pg&e and the owners of the building, and no amount of money in a civil suit is going to bring back the 36 lives, but they're going to pursue them and that's going to be another case that we'll be following, clearly. >> yeah. right now, let's turn things over to abc7 reporter le leah melendez. >> reporter: we were told that prosecutors would talk to the media after the verdict was heard and also after the jury was dismissed. now we are being told they should be coming out shortly, that they needed time to talk to members of the jury. now, once they come out, i will

quietly step aside so we can hear what they have to say, their reaction to this verdict. now, in the meantime, i want to recap a little bit about regarding the prosecution's state in all of this during this trial. now, the prosecution, if you recall, in closing arguments, always mentioned that the two defendants did amount or what they did amounted to criminal negligence. they stated, if you remember, time and time again that the warehouse was converted, it was made unsafe. these living conditions, they reiterated were unsafe living conditions and that there was no regard for safety. there were a number of fire code violations. the 36 people inside, they said, inside that warehouse, the prosecution said did not have time to escape. didn't know where the exits were. there were no sprinklers and no

smoke detectors, no alarms, no signs where they can just escape from that fire. now, one of the things that i remember vividly from deputy d.a. autry james was a quote that he said during the trial. if the place was safe, why aren't those 36 people here with us today? now, again, we're waiting for mr. james to come out. remember, before this trial, the d.a.'s office had already reached a plea bargain with the two defendants so this is sort of a setback, i don't know if that's the correct term, perhaps a defeat for the district attorney's office because when they tried to reach a plea bargain with the two defendants, which, of course, they pleaded no contest, the judge stepped in to say that he was not accepting

that and that he wanted a trial. this at the request of the family members and so this is how we got here to this trial. in the meantime, we are still waiting for the prosecutors to come out, give their version of what happened today. and we'll see what they have to say. but again, very disappointing, i'm sure, for them. right now, we're told they are talking to members of the jury to see -- and that's something usually that happens quite often. they try to find out why they went one way and why they didn't go the other way. >> all right, leann, thank you. it's an interesting situation and a decision that the prosecution has to make with regard to how they proceed in the almena case and whether on october 4th they actually want to proceed with a whole new trial for him. they almost got the verdict they were looking for by a 10-2

count, but there's a lot at stake here and a lot of decisions to be made and whether the family members want to go through another whole case. >> that is going to be painful. no doubt they'll be consulted but it's not a total loss for them. i mean, they lost in the max harris case but the main guy is almena. they still have a chance, or they wanted to, to try and get their main guy and they were close, as you mentioned, 10-2, but we'll here more about that in a little bit. but right now let's turn things over to leslie and laura out there together outside the courtroom. >> reporter: hi, kristen, actually, we both covered this trial pretty much from the beginning back in april and we both have our observations about kind of how this went and perhaps why it culminated the way it did today. i can say from my own experience that being in the courtroom this afternoon, it didn't seem like the family members were terribly surprised by the outcome. there were a couple people crying, certainly when max harris's not guilty verdicts were being read, very few people reacted at all and i'm speaking of the family members of the

victims. there were a couple ladies who were crying but they were honestly crying before the thing started. once they got to almena, though, i think their expectations might have been a bit different and i could see there were some sighs and moaning among the folks that it seemed that they were disappointed in the outcome, especially after we learned that the guilty was 10-2 and then the judge went on to say almost immediately after that that she felt that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked. so, at that point, people were clearly disappointed. leslie, you've been there from day one also and you know, there was a big difference between the evidence that we saw and heard against max harris and that against derrick almena, correct? >> reporter: the question has always been, almena signed the lease. almena went into it knowing that he was leasing a warehouse but he was turning it into living quarters and a concert venue and an art gallery, whereas harris was always portrayed by his attorneys as basically a

homeless guy who ended up in the bay area, found a place to live surrounded by art and that he basically just started helping almena out and i think the jury must have felt some sympathy or some empathy for him in the position he was in and that he wasn't ever officially hired or even given the title of creative director, even though the prosecution tried to nail on him that title. it never really stuck. i think for the families, they've been feeling ambivalent about it the whole time, certainly emotional about it the whole time, but they, like curtis briggs, the attorney for max harris just told us, he thinks they'll never find peace. this is going to be a difficult moment. >> reporter: well, and it's not over yet. as we've heard, i think now we're going to have to wait for the prosecution, the alameda county district attorney's office to decide whether they're going to want to retry derrick almena. the judge set a hearing on that matter for october 4th. and you may recall, larry and

kristen, that there was, at one point, a plea agreement in place in this case. i think almena's attorneys are hoping that maybe they can begin negotiating another plea in this next month or so. that's it for now from us. we'll have much more for you this afternoon on abc7 news. >> great job, laura and leslie. thank you both so much. >> yeah, and the update on that october 4th date, we've just heard from defense attorney for almena saying that his calendar is booked up and most likely they couldn't start or he couldn't be involved in a retrial until sometime in march, so there's a lot of time that's going to elapse here. that's all for now. there's so much to talk about with this case and the ramifications. we'll do that coming up in 30 minutes on abc7 news at 4:00. and it's -- it's a very difficult day for everybody involved, but 36 people lost their lives, hung trial for derrick almena, max harris

acquitted. >> thanks for joining us. we'll see you again at 4:00. >> world news is next. tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. hurricane dorian pounding the coast right now. at least 20 reported tornadoes. tonight, the dramatic images. homes destroyed. trees and power lines down. and tonight, the death toll now climbing in the bahamas and the major new fear. ginger zee is standing by with the new track for the u.s. the major wildfire burning at this hour. out of control. the pictures coming in at this hour. flames now coming dangerously close to homes. and we'll show you. the american mom under arrest tonight, reportedly accused of trying to buy a 6-day-old baby online. surveillance allegedly showing her trying to sneak the newborn onto a plane in her