{"id":2929,"date":"2021-12-09T09:43:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T17:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=2929"},"modified":"2021-12-10T09:57:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T17:57:05","slug":"commentary-caldor-fire-arrests-smith-friends-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2021\/12\/09\/commentary-caldor-fire-arrests-smith-friends-speak-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary – CALDOR Fire Arrests -Smith Friends Speak Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
[JERICHO ISLAND]<\/pre>\n
“Eve of Arraignment: Smith Friends Speak Out”<\/p>\n
On the eve of their arraignment, friends of David and Travis Smith are speaking out. One source, interviewed on the condition of anonymity, stated in the decades they have known the Smith family, they have never seen David nor Shane in any sort of legal trouble. \u201cThey are good, hard-working people. David has a son who is a veteran. Travis is a successful electrician. Just good Americans, the both of them\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
Another friend who also chose to remain anonymous expressed anger that David was arrested at his place of business. \u201cWhy did they have to embarrass him like that? It\u2019s not like the guy was a flight risk. He\u2019s just going to work everyday. Why didn\u2019t they just ask their attorney to bring them in?\u201d David has worked at the Pepsi bottling plant on Reese Road in Sacramento for over 30 years. He is due to retire next year.<\/p>\n
The same source also stated that Travis, who goes by his middle name, Shane, with close friends, \u201cIs one of the hardest working people I know. The guy was running his own electrical business and owned two properties before he was even 30. Just a stand-up guy.\u201d Travis (Shane) Smith was on a call for an electric job at West Park High School in Roseville, CA when he was arrested on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Both friends also state they have been in regular contact with David and Travis (Shane) since the Caldor Fire began. The Smiths did not mention the searches conducted on their properties since August, nor did they mention they were the target of law enforcement\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n
Mark Reichel, attorney for the Smith\u2019s, confirmed with me in a phone call Thursday afternoon that David and Travis (Shane) have been under investigation since a few days after the start of the fire. Mr. Reichel states that the Smiths began receiving phone calls from investigators \u201ca few days after\u201d reporting the fire. The following Friday they hired Mr. Reichel, and the following Sunday, he says, their properties were \u201craided.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he has stated in several interview throughout the day, Mr. Reichel told me neither David nor Travis (Shane) had anything to do with starting the fire. He claims they were simply in the area enjoying the land when they spotted fire and Travis called 911. Mr. Reichel states that Travis had to call emergency services \u201ctwo or three times because the call kept getting dropped,\u201d but he was able to get to the message through. He also states the Smiths then located campers they had seen earlier to warn them of the approaching fire, and that these people were wildland camping and not in a proper campground.<\/p>\n
At the time of our interview, roughly 24 hours since his clients arrest, Mr. Reichel stated he had \u201cno idea what is going on\u201d and that he had not received any information from the District Attorney nor Sheriff. \u201cWhile strange,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s not illegal. They have 48 hours to charge or let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments before this writing, Luke Cleary of ABC10 broke the story that the El Dorado County District Attorney officially filed charges against the Smiths for reckless arson and allegedly starting the Caldor Fire. You can follow Luke on Twitter at @LukeCleary.<\/p>\n
I also asked Mr. Reichel about the social media rumor mill and if there as anything he felt needed cleared up. He stated that the Sacramento Bee ran a story quoting a source as saying investigators believe the Caldor Fire started due to the Smiths illegally discharging weapons, and others began attributing the quote to Mr. Reichel. He stated, \u201cI have no idea why people are saying that source was me. I have no idea what the theory is. No idea what the prosecution theory is at all.\u201d I asked him if he had any concerns for his clients safety given the response on social media. \u201cYes, I absolutely do\u201d he said. \u201cThe mob is out with the pitchforks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before wrapping up my interviews with the Smith family friends, I asked if there was anything else they wanted to say about the investigation. Aside from their glowing descriptions of David and Travis (Shane), one friend expressed frustration at the firefighting response. \u201cHow long was it before the fire fighters got there? Why can\u2019t we know that? They go after my friends and put all this garbage out there about them, but they can\u2019t tell us how long it took firefighters to get there after they got the call? Something just isn\u2019t right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of this writing, the El Dorado County District Attorney\u2019s office and the Sheriff\u2019s office have not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
\n
Source: https:\/\/jerichoisland.com\/2021\/12\/09\/eve-of-arraignment-smith-friends-speak-out\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
… [the Sacramento Bee ran a story quoting a source as saying investigators believe the Caldor Fire started due to the Smiths illegally discharging weapons, and others began attributing the quote to Mr. Reichel. He stated, \u201cI have no idea why people are saying that source was me. I have no idea what the theory is. No idea what the prosecution theory is at all.\u201d I asked him if he had any concerns for his clients safety given the response on social media. \u201cYes, I absolutely do\u201d he said. \u201cThe mob is out with the pitchforks.]…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1],"tags":[41],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-600x300.jpg",600,300,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-768x384.jpg",640,320,true],"large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",640,320,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"darknews-slider-full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"darknews-featured":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-1024x512.jpg",1024,512,true],"darknews-medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-720x530.jpg",720,530,true],"darknews-medium-square":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-350x350.jpg",350,350,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"Crime<\/a> News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions\/2930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}