(Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the mother of a man accused of setting dozens of fires across Los Angeles this year can be extradited to Germany to face charges including failing to pay a surgeon for breast augmentation.
Dorothee Burkhart, 53, is also accused in Germany of failing to return security deposits on rental properties she leased and accepting fees and deposits on apartment units she did not own, according to the extradition document.
Her extradition is pending a final determination from the U.S. Secretary of State, prosecutors said.
She was taken into custody on an arrest warrant issued by German authorities in late December, right before dozens of fires, mostly started in parked cars, left Los Angeles residents on edge and caused an estimated $3 million in damage.
Her son, Harry Burkhart, 24, pleaded innocent in January to 100 counts of arson and related charges and is being held on $7.5 million bail.
An arson investigator said in court papers that the younger Burkhart was motivated by “rage against Americans” and wanted to terrorize as many residents of Los Angeles as possible.
Harry Burkhart was arrested after a tip from a member of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security field office who recognized him on surveillance videotape from his mother’s initial court hearing in December.
According to court papers, Harry Burkhart was ejected from the courtroom after shouting a profanity against Americans.
In ordering Dorothee Burkhart’s extradition, the magistrate judge rejected an argument by her attorneys that she was a key material witness in her son’s case, and that she could be tortured or killed in Germany.
“Ms. Burkhart’s allegations that she would be inhumanely treated, tortured or killed if extradited to Germany are simply not credible,” Judge Charles F. Eick wrote in the document.
State prosecutors in Germany said Harry Burkhart was also wanted in that country on suspicion of starting a fire that burned down his family’s home in Neukirchen.
(Reporting by Mary Slosson; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Xavier Briand)
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