PG&E to challenge criminal charges filed in deadly 2020 Northern California wildfire
PG&E Corp., facing criminal charges in another fatal Northern California wildfire, told a judge Friday that it plans to challenge the legality of a portion of the indictment.
California’s largest utility, haunted by criminal and monetary claims over a string of major wildfires in recent years, didn’t enter a plea during an arraignment on the charges filed in last year’s Zogg Fire in Shasta County Superior Court.
However, PG&E’s lawyers next month will file a formal legal challenge, called a demurrer, contesting the validity of a portion of the criminal case — specifically, the allegation that it’s responsible for smoke and ash spewed into the air when the Zogg Fire erupted in September 2020.
Four people died in the Zogg Fire, which burned 56,388 acres in a rural area west of Redding. Last month the Shasta County district attorney filed 31 felony and misdemeanor charges against PG&E, saying the fire started when a tree came into contact with a power line. District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said the tree had been marked for removal by PG&E two years earlier.
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