Ghost Ship defendant admits he lied to police about living in warehouse
OAKLAND — As Ghost Ship defendant Max Harris took the stand Tuesday for the second day, the prosecution is trying to poke holes in his testimony, in order to portray the 29-year-old man as a liar.
Harris himself admitted in cross-examination under Deputy District Attorney Autrey James that he did lie to police in 2015, a year before the fire, about people living inside the warehouse. He said he lied because he was afraid of getting evicted.
Harris and co-defendant Derick Almena are each accused of 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of 36 people who perished in the warehouse fire on Dec. 2, 2016. The prosecution claims the men should be held responsible because of their criminal negligence in creating the warehouse space as it was the night of the fire– filled with items from floor to ceiling, without fire sprinklers or exit signs, and with illegal residents living inside.
In a police body camera footage played for the jury, Harris is seen outside the Ghost Ship warehouse after police were called about an alleged stabbing incident in 2015. Oakland Police Officer Brian Kline, whose body camera was turned on, asks Harris if anyone lives in the warehouse.
“No, no. We’re [sic] work here, it’s a 24 hours art studio,” Harris said in the video.
But when James asked him during cross-examination on Tuesday if he lied to police, Harris at first said “If that’s how you want to look at it, sure.”
After further pressing, Harris eventually quietly responded “yes” and confirmed that he did lie.
Harris explained that he didn’t know that particular officer, and he was afraid of getting evicted because the Ghost Ship was a “non-standard” living space. He also called it a “precarious” living situation. But when asked if he knew if it was illegal to live there, Harris said he didn’t know what was legal, and what wasn’t.
Harris also testified about emails he received from the Ng family landlords in October 2016, particularly Kai and Eva Ng, who are the children of the owner Chor Ng.
Harris said that Kai Ng visited the Ghost Ship warehouse at least twice when he lived there, even coming inside. Reading out loud from one email from Kai Ng in October 2015, Kai Ng wrote: “In fact with each visit at the site in the past 12 months, I found the site to be in incredibly worse conditions.”
Harris had emailed the Ng’s to inquire about renting out Omar’s body shop location next door. But Kai Ng said he was not interested in expanding the Ghost Ship’s footprint, especially considering the money the art collective owed in electricity payments.
Kai Ng said in the email that the art collective, called Satya Yuga, had increased the monthly electricity costs from under $1,000 to $2,000 a month. They had “not paid a penny” towards it.
Harris said this was the first he had heard about the electricity payments they owed. But in cross-examination, James impeached him by bringing up other emails from the year before, in 2015, when the Ng’s mentioned the lack of electricity payments.
Harris said those emails were threads, and he didn’t see them.
At the end of his direct questioning with his attorney Tyler Smith Tuesday morning, Smith asked Harris if he would have done anything differently after the events of Dec. 2, 2016.
“Yeah, a lot of things,” Harris said. “I think about it often… I dream about it.”
He said because of his case, he knows a lot more information now that he did before, although he didn’t expand on what he meant.
His voice quiet and calm, Harris said he wished he would have done more, such as gone up the stairs in the fire, or put a ladder to the front window to get people out. He also said not only the night of the fire, but in the years before, he would have put “even more pressure on the landlords.”
Testimony continues Tuesday afternoon.
Check back for updates.