Mom recounts Almena’s sway over her son
The mother of a founding member of the Ghost Ship artists collective testified Tuesday that she tried to talk her son out of co-signing a lease for the warehouse with his friend, Derick Almena. Katleen Bouchard had disapproved of Almena since he had talked Nico Bouchard out of living in his own apartment, she said.
But her son, she said, “was helpless against Derick.”
Katleen Bouchard took the stand Tuesday in the Ghost Ship fire trial against Almena, the master tenant of the warehouse, and Max Harris, whom prosecutors describe as Almena’s right-hand man. Almena, 49, and Harris, 29, are
each charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the 36 victims who died in the Dec. 2, 2016, fire in Oakland’s Fruitvale district.
Most of Bouchard’s testimony was directed at Almena, whom she described as having an unhealthy level of power over her son. Bouchard said she never met Harris.
Prior to the Ghost Ship warehouse, Nico Bouchard had lived with Almena in a Santa Cruz mountaintop retreat and an Oakland house, where the two would create set designs for festivals like Burning Man.
At her son’s request, Bouchard rented a UHaul to move him out of the Santa Cruz home. She didn’t necessarily want him home with her, she said, but “I wanted him away from Mr. Almena.”
Bouchard said her son was in “very bad shape” when he lived with Almena in the Oakland home. Nico Bouchard called her “hysterically crying” on several occasions, she said, each time prompting her to come and attempt to retrieve her son.
Each time though, the two would talk in her car and he’d ultimately refuse to come with her.
“I had to watch that four, five, six times,” she said.
After Nico Bouchard co-signed the Ghost Ship warehouse lease, Bouchard said she attempted to help her son and his friend get the building up to code.
The warehouse needed a lot of repairs and updating to be a viable community center, which was what the founders had envisioned, Bouchard said.
The mother and son called a meeting with Almena, his wife and other warehouse leaders, where Bouchard said she offered information about Oakland grants that could help pay for upgrades.
“He laughed at me,” the witness said of Almena’s response, adding that Almena believed the ideas to be “way too conventional.”
“He didn’t want to do things like that,” Bouchard said. “He wanted to do things his own way.”
Bouchard’s testimony on this meeting lined up with that of her son, who testified earlier this month. Nico Bouchard, now 27, said he left the warehouse within weeks after the meeting and attempted to distance himself from the lease.
Tuesday marked the 13th day of testimony in a trial that’s expected to last several more weeks.
Later in the afternoon, prosecutor Butch Ford served as a stand-in for prosecution witness Robert “Jake” Jacobitz, who died in an accident this month. Jacobitz was an unlicensed contractor who performed some electrical and construction work on the warehouse.
Ford read Jacobitz’s testimony from the trial’s preliminary hearing, where Jacobitz said he removed the warehouse’s conveyor belt and numerous lights, installed plugs and helped carve out a large hole into the top floor. Jacobitz had testified that on numerous occasions he warned Almena about the warehouse’s fire hazards, calling the space a “death trap.”
“I don’t think (Almena) really took it seriously,” Ford said, reading Jacobitz’s testimony.
Prosecutors accuse Almena and Harris of creating a death trap inside the warehouse, and of packing dozens of guests inside a space some have described as a tinderbox. Few safety measures were installed in the 10,000-square-foot space, which was used as an illegal residence and jammed with extension cords, cables and flammable wood.
Defense attorneys say Oakland officials should have known that the building was dangerous, and have pointed to several occasions in which police, fire and childservices officials visited. The defense team has also suggested the inferno could have been ignited by arsonists in a revenge plot against Almena.