The mother of arson suspect Harry Burkhart is wanted in Germany on 19 counts of fraud, including charges that she bilked apartment renters out of security deposits and failed to pay for breast-augmentation surgery, according to Los Angeles federal court papers unsealed Tuesday. Dorothee Burkhart appeared in federal court for a detention hearing, but the proceeding has been delayed until Friday to give her time to hire an attorney. According to various reports, her arrest last week may have led to her son’s alleged arson spree in which more than 50 fires were set in the Los Angeles area. Harry Burkhart, 24, allegedly launched into a tirade during his mother’s court hearing last week, a police official told the Los Angeles Times . A German national living in Hollywood, he is being held without bail in downtown Los Angeles on suspicion of arson of an inhabited dwelling and is tentatively scheduled to make a court appearance in Van Nuys on Wednesday. “I hate America,” Harry Burkhart said as he was being arrested, ABC News reported. In court, Dorothee Burkhart reportedly asked loudly for her son several times, repeating in heavily accented English, “Where is my son? What did you do to my son?” At one point, the distraught woman, who is in her early 50s, spoke of “German Nazis.” She said that her son is “mentally ill” and has “disappeared.” A warrant for Dorothee Burkhart’s arrest was issued in Germany in 2007, according to court papers. She is accused of subletting apartments she did not own, failing to pay rent and security deposits on other locations, and of defrauding a Frankfurt cosmetic surgeon out of the equivalent of about $10,000 for breast augmentation surgery she never paid for, according to a provisional arrest warrant. This report has been compiled with information from City News Service. Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook . See the original post: Mother of Arson Suspect in Federal Custody on German Warrant
Read more here:
Mother of Arson Suspect in Federal Custody on German Warrant
