Thursday, September 17, 2026

District Attorney to Meet Altadena Residents on Fraud and Crime Following the Fire

Nathan Hochman, L.A. County District Attorney via Facebook

The county’s top prosecutor joins a community meeting on protecting Eaton survivors during the recovery

When Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman comes to Altadena on Tuesday, Sept. 22, the subject won’t be the Eaton Fire itself. It will be the people his office says have tried to profit illegally  from it.

The Pasadena NAACP, working with the District Attorney’s Office, will host a town hall focused on the fraud and crime the announcement says can target survivors during recovery: contractor fraud, financial elder abuse, vandalism, looting and rent gouging. The branch announced the event on its Facebook page, framing it as a chance for residents to “get informed, ask questions, and learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones during the recovery and rebuilding process.”

For Hochman, the appearance connects to work his office has been doing in the burn zone for more than a year. In December 2025, prosecutors announced charges against people accused of contracting without a license inside the Eaton Fire disaster zone — cases the office said at the time remained under investigation with the Contractors State License Board.

His office has also charged people in wildfire-related burglaries in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, and it secured a $320,000 settlement from a Pasadena hotel accused of gouging guests who had fled the fires.

“It is reprehensible to overcharge and take advantage of wildfire victims who were in desperate need of housing as they fled their homes from raging fires last year,” Hochman said in a statement announcing that settlement.

The through-line, in the office’s telling, is a second wave of harm following the first. In a countywide statement issued as the fires still burned in January 2025, Hochman said that “those who seek to illegally profit from the pain and suffering of others—whether through looting, fraud, theft, burglary, or any other form of criminal activity—will not go unpunished.”

The NAACP has kept a steady presence in Altadena, one of Southern California’s most historic Black communities, since the fire. The branch asked residents in its announcement to pass word of the town hall to “neighbors, family, and Eaton Fire survivors.”

The NAACP Town Hall on Eaton Fire Recovery is set for Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The Collaboratory, 540 West Woodbury Road — a space that opened in October 2025 as a centralized recovery hub for fire survivors. The event is open to the community, and the announcement does not list an admission charge or a registration requirement. Parking details were not included in the announcement.

For more information, contact the Pasadena NAACP branch at (626) 793-1293 or visit naacppasadena.org.