Steve Farzam: Charges, Plea Deal, and Impersonation Pattern

Steve Farzam is a 46-year-old Brentwood, California man who, in March 2026, pleaded no contest to 11 felony charges after prosecutors said he posed as a firefighter during the January 2025 Palisades Fire, pointed a high-intensity laser at aircraft over Los Angeles, and used forged credentials to buy firearms reserved for law enforcement. He received three years of formal probation and avoided prison, but a suspended sentence of up to 12 years hangs over him if he violates its terms.¹ The case is part of a pattern of impersonation that stretches back to 1999.

The 2025 Charges

A joint task force of local, state, and federal officers arrested Farzam on July 16, 2025, and executed search warrants at his residences in West Los Angeles and Brentwood. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed 28 counts against him in case number 25CJCF04164: 23 felonies and five misdemeanors.²

The felony counts included six for discharging a laser at an aircraft, three for assault with a deadly weapon, four for assault upon a peace officer, one for impersonating a public officer, one for carrying a loaded unregistered handgun in a vehicle, seven for perjury by declaration, and one for procuring and offering a false or forged instrument. The misdemeanors were two counts of impersonating a fire officer and three counts of trespassing on closed lands.² Farzam pleaded not guilty at his July 17, 2025 arraignment and was held without bail. If convicted on every count, he had faced up to 23 years and 10 months in state prison.³

Posing as a Firefighter During the Palisades Fire

Prosecutors said Farzam posed as a high-ranking firefighter on at least three occasions in 2025 — on January 16, January 17, and March 25 — using credentials tied to a fictitious agency he called the “Santa Muerte Fire Department.”⁴ During the Palisades Fire in January, he allegedly wore full firefighter gear to get past a National Guard checkpoint and enter restricted zones, where he interfered with operations.⁵ At the arraignment, Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian said Farzam “tried to badge his way into fire zones,” succeeding at least three times by “pretending to be an arson investigator.”³

The Santa Muerte Fire Department does not exist. Prosecutors said Farzam began registering vehicles under the name with the California DMV in September 2022 and eventually registered at least 10 vehicles to the fabricated agency. Its listed address was a UPS Store in El Centro, California.⁴ The July 2025 searches turned up a 1986 Pierce fire engine registered to the department, two utility vehicles with California government-exempt license plates, police and fire light packages, radios, first responder identification cards, ammunition, and various fraudulent documents.⁶ Prosecutors said Farzam used the firefighter persona to obtain the exempt plates and to buy firearms restricted to law enforcement.⁵

The fictitious department had surfaced once before. In July 2023, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested a man named Andrew De Boer for allegedly posing as a fire investigator with the Santa Muerte Fire Department.⁵

The Laser Strikes on Aircraft

On the night of February 21, 2025, Farzam allegedly pointed a high-intensity blue laser at multiple aircraft over West Los Angeles. Prosecutors said the targets included the ABC7 news helicopter known as AIR7, a California Highway Patrol helicopter, and three commercial airliners descending into LAX, one of them an American Airlines flight.⁵

The news helicopter’s pilot and reporter, Chris Christi, said the laser “lit up the entire cockpit,” caused intense pain and temporary blindness, and forced evasive action. The American Airlines pilot reportedly had to duck below the cockpit panel to avoid the beam as the plane descended.⁴ Investigators used the news helicopter’s own footage to trace the source. The video showed a black SUV on the ground; detectives identified Farzam stepping out of it and matched the license plate to a rental linked to his hotel.⁷ Farzam’s defense attorney, Alan Jackson, disputed the charges and said a defense expert found the light diffusion in the footage inconsistent with a laser beam. Jackson also noted that laser pointers found at Farzam’s home were not blue.

Firearms Bought With Forged Credentials

Between February 2023 and January 2024, Farzam allegedly used forged peace officer identification and a falsified Peace Officer Standards and Training certificate to buy at least nine firearms, including a .22 caliber handgun, a 9mm handgun, rifles, and a 12-gauge shotgun. The forged credentials let him bypass California’s mandatory Firearm Safety Certificate requirement and purchase handguns not on the state’s Roster of Certified Handguns, weapons otherwise sold only to law enforcement. Prosecutors said he arrived at gun stores wearing a uniform with Santa Muerte Fire Department patches and a holstered handgun to sell the ruse.⁴

The Plea Deal and Probation Terms

On March 9, 2026, Farzam entered no-contest pleas to 11 of the 28 original counts before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter. The charges to which he pleaded included discharging a laser at an occupied aircraft, assault with a deadly weapon, impersonation of a public officer, carrying a loaded firearm in public, and six counts of perjury by declaration. Prosecutors dismissed the remaining 17 counts, including a charge of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer or firefighter with great bodily injury likely. A separate charge of possessing a destructive device had already been dismissed in October 2025 for insufficient cause.⁸

Judge Hunter sentenced Farzam to three years of formal probation and suspended execution of his prison sentence. The probation conditions require him to have no contact with victims or witnesses, not own or possess any dangerous or deadly weapons, submit to searches of his person and property, make restitution to victims, obey all laws and court orders, and identify himself only by his legal name.⁸ A probation violation could trigger a 12-year prison sentence.¹

A Decades-Long Pattern

Farzam’s documented impersonation history reaches back to the late 1990s and spans police, fire, and federal personas.

1999: Santa Barbara Police Impersonation

A former police cadet, Farzam was arrested by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department for impersonating a police officer and perjury after being seen driving a Crown Victoria with exempt plates, flashing lights, and police equipment. He tried to assist an officer at a traffic stop and later interfered at a public disturbance. Under a plea agreement, the impersonation and perjury charges were dismissed; he pleaded guilty to providing false information on DMV documents and a registration violation.⁴

2002–2004: Firefighter Impersonation and False Emergency Reports

LAPD arrested Farzam in 2002 for impersonating a firefighter and falsely reporting an emergency. The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office filed a 19-count complaint, and in 2003 he was convicted of five misdemeanors and sentenced to 182 days in jail plus probation. In 2004, a new arrest for falsely reporting an emergency ended with a guilty plea to two of six counts and additional probation.⁴

2014–2015: FBI Impersonation and a 77-Count Case

The California Department of Justice opened an investigation after finding Farzam had used an alias to access DMV records and had impersonated an FBI Special Agent, using the name “Rafael Garcia,” to influence a DUI prosecution.⁴ A June 2014 multi-agency raid on his home and the Shore Hotel, coordinated by the California AG’s eCrime Unit, ATF, FBI, and DMV, recovered 16 firearms, 43 forged law enforcement badges, 12 emergency radios, and a fully marked California Highway Patrol cruiser.⁵ Authorities filed 77 charges, all but four of them felonies.⁹ In 2015, Farzam pleaded no contest to three felonies — impersonating a peace officer, possession of an illegal assault weapon, and unauthorized access of a computer system — and received 182 days in jail with credit for 90 days served.¹⁰ In 2022, those felony convictions were reduced to misdemeanors and expunged.

2017–2019: Forged Court Seal and Witness Intimidation

After The Atavist Magazine published an investigative article about Farzam in 2017, he was charged with counterfeiting a Los Angeles Superior Court seal. Prosecutors said he fabricated a court order purporting to seal his 2015 case records and submitted it to the magazine and to Google to get the article removed from search results. The defense attorney named on the forged document told investigators they had “never heard of Farzam.”¹⁰ He faced four felony charges: forging the court seal, attempting to dissuade a witness, and two counts of identity theft related to a former employee named Libier Hernandez. Farzam pleaded no contest to three felonies; the broader case was ultimately dismissed in 2022 through a mental health diversion program.⁴

Shore Hotel, Paramedic Claims, and COVID Testing

Farzam once served as Chief Operating Officer of the Shore Hotel, a Santa Monica luxury hotel developed by Sunshine Enterprises, a company managed by the Farzam family.¹¹ By 2025, his connection to the property was contested. Prosecutors alleged in court filings that he still used the hotel as a “base of operations” for fraudulent activity, pointing to IP addresses tied to false submissions and vehicle registrations. A public relations firm representing the hotel countered that Farzam had not held any position there for more than five years and had no affiliation with it, identifying his brother, Jon Farzam, as the owner.⁵

Farzam holds an associate degree in emergency medical technology from Southwestern College in Chula Vista and has represented himself as a paramedic. The California Emergency Medical Services Authority denied his paramedic license application twice, citing the 1999 police-impersonation arrest, a conviction for making false statements to the DMV, and a pattern of behavior indicating a desire to falsely identify himself as a first responder. State authorities also found that an American Heart Association Healthcare Provider card he submitted to meet teaching credentials at Southwestern College was “invalid and dishonestly obtained.”⁴

During the pandemic, Farzam served as chief operating officer of 911 COVID Testing, which ran sites in the Los Angeles area, including a large facility at 302 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica and another near the Getty Center in Brentwood.¹² Prosecutors have characterized that operation as part of a broader pattern of leveraging first-responder personas for personal benefit, though no separate fraud charges tied to the testing company have been publicly filed.⁴

1
ABC7. Brentwood Man Accused Impersonating Firefighter Strikes Plea Deal Avoiding Prison Time
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LA County District Attorney’s Office. Brentwood Man Faces 28 Charges Accused Posing Firefighter Amid Wildfires
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ABC News. Fire Truck Found at Southern California Man’s Home
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CNN. Steve Farzam Accused Firefighter Impersonator California
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CBS News Los Angeles. Santa Monica Hotel Owner Impersonating Firefighter
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Fox LA. LA Brentwood Raid Fire Truck Seized
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ABC7. Brentwood Man Faces 28 Charges Including Impersonating Firefighter Amid LA Wildfires
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Santa Monica Daily Press. Habitual Fraud Steve Farzam Takes Plea Deal in Latest Case of Impersonating Public Safety Worker
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The Atavist Magazine. Not Fuzz
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Santa Monica Daily Press. Longtime Police Impersonator Steve Farzam Arrested for Pretending to Be Firefighter During Palisades Fire
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The Atavist Magazine. The Con Continues
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ABC7. Santa Monica Covid Test Site