Documents obtained by the Bay Area News Group show that the lease Derick Almena and a partner signed for the Ghost Ship warehouse planned an illegal use from the very start — an artist collective that was not allowed under zoning laws — and that the building owner had approved the use.

And two months after that document was signed, landlord Eva Ng was told that Almena was secretly making alterations to the building that went beyond the terms of the lease, but Ng made no apparent move to stop him.

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Bouchard “looks relatively safe” from criminal prosecution because of his clear efforts to walk away from the warehouse and citing Almena’s unauthorized work to the building, said Stanford Law Professor Robert Weisberg, who reviewed the lease at the request of this news organization.