Suspect Pleads Not Guilty to Encino Fires

An unemployed Iranian immigrant with a history of mental problems was arraigned Tuesday on a dozen charges of arson and hate crimes for allegedly setting a series of fires at houses of worship in Encino.

Farshid Haji Ezra Tehrani 40, made a brief appearance in a Van Nuys courtroom where he pleaded not guilty to setting fire to an inhabited dwelling, four counts of setting fire to a religious place of worship, attempted arson and vandalism.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Alvin Nierenberg ordered Tehrani’s bail to remain at $750,000 and set a hearing for May 28.

If convicted on all charges, the Encino resident faces a maximum term of 22 years in state prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott T. Millington said there was evidence linking Tehrani, who lived with his parents on Balboa Boulevard, to all of the fires.

He declined, however, to discuss specific evidence in the case.

“Based on the charges we filed today, we believe the defendant was responsible for all four fires [at the houses of worship],” he said.

“I leave it at that.”

Defense attorney Laizer Gould challenged that contention.

“What I’ve seen so far is not strong at all,” Gould said of the evidence against his client. “At this point in time, the paperwork I’ve been provided with doesn’t appear to have anything there that really ties Mr. Tehrani to these fires.”

Police searched three residences in the case, two on Balboa Boulevard where Tehrani’s parents own homes and one at a sister’s apartment in Westwood, Gould said.

“All they came away with was some clothing and paperwork,” Gould said of dozens of investigators who blocked Balboa Boulevard for hours.

“It didn’t look like they came away with anything to do with fires.”

Composite drawings provided by witnesses in the case look nothing like his client, Gould said.

“There’s a witness describing him as 25 to 30 years old with a mustache,” he said. “Farshid is 40 with a goatee.”

Gould also raised issues about Tehrani’s mental state.

“He has a history of mental problems, including depression,” he said. “I understand he is currently on medication.”

In an example of apparently bizarre behavior, Tehrani was arrested Aug. 14, 2001, in an incident at a Barnes & Noble bookstore on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, the city attorney’s office said.

Tehrani later pleaded no contest to trespassing, interfering with a business, loitering and disorderly conduct and served 24 days in the Los Angeles County Jail.

Witness reported they saw Tehrani place his pubic hairs inside children’s books and then return the books to a shelf, said Eric Moses, spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Tehrani was taken into custody by Los Angeles police and fire officials early Friday after he allegedly set fire to a trash can in West Los Angeles and was quickly identified as the prime suspect in the arson attacks in the San Fernando Valley that targeted Christian, Jewish and Bahai houses of worship.

The first fire was set early on April 26 at the First Presbyterian Church of Encino and caused between $75,000 and $100,000 in damage.

Two blazes followed on May 5, one causing minor damage at the Bahai Faith Community Center on Genesta Avenue and a second that burned the roof of a small Iranian synagogue on Ventura Boulevard.

In a fourth attack, a window was shattered May 6 at the Da’at Torah Educational Center, a small storefront temple at a Ventura Boulevard mini-mall.

Early the next morning, an object believed to have been a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the sanctuary of the Valley Beth Shalom synagogue.

That fire was extinguished by an automated sprinkler system.

At one point, more than 150 investigators were working on the case.

It was when a fire official was able to link a house fire on Balboa Boulevard to at least one of the houses of worship that provided a break in the case, according to police and fire officials who asked not to be named, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

On May 7, Los Angeles patrol officers cited Tehrani for jaywalking and noticed he was carrying a lighter.

That identification led to a massive surveillance operation in which Tehrani was tailed to Westwood, where police said he set a trash can on fire.

Moments later he was arrested.

Millington also said prosecutors had information that Tehrani was not Jewish, which was challenged by the defense attorney.

“He was born Jewish, raised Jewish and is Jewish,” Gould said. “He’s as Jewish as I am.”