Accused Oak Fire arsonist released from jail with ankle monitor, Mariposa County Sheriff confirms

MARIPOSA COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The accused Oak Fire arsonist, 73-year-old Edward Wackerman, was released with an physics ankle show connected Monday nighttime owed to a tribunal order, the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office confirms.

Wackerman was arrested connected July 22, 2022, for allegedly starting the Oak Fire. Sheriff Jeremy Briese said it was the astir devastating lawsuit successful Mariposa County history, destroying 127 homes.

Wackerman was arrested connected June 16, 2023. He pleaded not blameworthy to respective felony charges, including aggravated arson. In a tribunal hearing, the Sheriff said representatives for the California Department of Justice and Wackerman's defence agreed that helium should beryllium released from jail.

During a "Inside the Office" Facebook unrecorded video connected Monday evening, Sheriff Briese assured the nationalist that the sheriff's bureau volition proceed to support a adjacent oculus connected Wackerman.

"The sheriff's bureau volition bash everything we tin to beryllium of assistance. We volition bash everything we tin to enactment with probation to marque definite monitoring is going successfully and we anticipation things similar this tin beryllium reversed," Sheriff Briese says. "I don't cognize if that's successful the legislature oregon the assembly oregon lawsuit instrumentality oregon what we gotta do, but it's not right."

Wackerman is acceptable to instrumentality to tribunal for a pre-trial proceeding successful January 2026.