“physical evidence of a launched firework,” said Steve Haney, defense attorney for Jonathan Rinderknecht.
An $11 million Pacific Palisades mansion owned by former Miami Heat star and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Bosh has become an unexpected focal point in the federal arson retrial over the deadly 2025 Palisades Fire, according to court documents obtained by the California Post and reported by outlets including Fox News and WLOQ Radio.
Originally hailing from Dallas where he entered the world on March 24, 1984, Christopher Wesson Bosh played college basketball for Georgia Tech prior to being selected fourth overall in the 2003 draft by the Toronto Raptors. He began his career with the Toronto Raptors in 2003 and was enshrined in the Basketball Hall in 2021. He left for Miami in 2010, teaming with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. During his tenure with the Heat, Bosh made four consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals, capturing championships in 2012 against Oklahoma City and 2013 against San Antonio.
He played in the NBA for 13 seasons and was an 11-time All-Star. Blood circulation complications beginning in 2016 ultimately cut his playing days short, resulting in his premature retirement in 2019. The final 29 games of the 2015-16 season were missed due to an additional leg clot, leading up to his last career appearance on Feb. 9, 2016.
Bosh failed a team physical before the 2016-17 season, and the Heat waived him in 2017. He announced his retirement in 2019, when Miami raised his No. 1 jersey on March 26. “Take your medicine,” Bosh said, according to HoopsHype.
The development surfaced in federal court as attorneys defending 30-year-old Rinderknecht sought to introduce expert testimony regarding burn and smoke marks discovered at the property. Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty to revised federal charges accusing him of starting the January 1, 2025, Lachman Fire with a lighter near a hiking trail.
Investigators previously said that initial blaze smoldered underground before fierce Santa Ana winds fanned it into the catastrophic Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025, a disaster that destroyed nearly 6,800 structures and killed 12 people.
Defense Seeks to Prove Fireworks Sparked the Flames
Rinderknecht’s defense team is attempting to establish that fireworks, rather than a lighter, sparked the initial flames. To support that theory, Haney asked the court to permit testimony from Michael T. Cole, a retired California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection investigator who spent 18 years in the agency’s arson unit, as reported by Fox News and the New York Post.
According to court filings cited by EssentiallySports, Cole inspected drone photographs of Bosh’s Mediterranean-style estate, which sits near the ignition zone.
“Mr. Cole is expected to testify that during his 2025 investigation of the Palisades Fire he observed and documented a mark and an associated burn and smoke trail on the driveway and rear patio area of the residence at (redacted), and that, based on his training and experience, those marks are physical evidence of a launched firework,” Haney wrote in the filing published by Fox News.
Federal prosecutors strongly opposed the request and filed a motion to disqualify Cole as an expert witness, as detailed by NBC Los Angeles and Talkbasket. Prosecutors argued in court documents obtained by the New York Post that Cole possessed “zero qualifications, training, or experience” to link driveway discoloration to pyrotechnics.
“His entire ‘expert’ opinion is based on six drone photographs of a brown stain on the driveway taken in either February 2025 or 2026. No up-close in-person inspection, no other testing. Six drone photographs, that’s it,” prosecutors stated in court records highlighted by BroBible.
Bosh Responds to Property Allegations
Bosh, 42, has not been accused of any crime and was not named as a suspect in the federal case, according to reports by Yahoo Sports and TMZ. The two-time NBA champion, who won titles alongside LeBron James and Dwyane Wade during a 13-season professional career, purchased the six-bedroom, 10,755-square-foot estate in December 2012 for approximately $9.4 million, as noted by EssentiallySports.
Following the emergence of court filings, Bosh and his wife, Adrienne, issued a statement addressing the property’s status when the fire broke out. “We were at our residence in Austin, Texas,” the couple Bosh and his wife, Adrienne, stated, adding that the Pacific Palisades residence was unoccupied and was not rented out or used by guests at that time.
Rinderknecht remains in federal custody following his arrest on October 7, 2025, after a previous trial in June ended in a mistrial when jurors deadlocked 10–2 in favor of acquittal, according to NBC Los Angeles and WLOQ Radio.
Keep reading
