Judge Declares Mistrial in Arson Case

A 23-year-old cameraman was released from custody Thursday after a jury deadlocked on whether he set a 5,100-acre wildfire two years ago in the Leona Valley to gain exclusive TV footage.

Jurors voted unanimously to acquit Palmdale resident Joshua Harville on five less serious counts of arson, and on an 8-4 vote found him not guilty on two counts of aggravated arson.

Judge Michael E. Pastor declared a mistrial.

Prosecutors agreed to allow Harville to be released from custody pending an April 6 hearing to decide if he will be retried.

“Obviously we’re disappointed, and we’ll be reassessing the case,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Defense attorney Alan Baum said he felt “we proved his innocence.” However, he noted that the jurors’ verdict was rife with contradictions, which he thought should prohibit a retrial.

Jurors voted unanimously to clear Harville on five counts that required proving only that he had a general intent of starting a fire, Baum said. Yet four jurors voted to convict Harville of the more-difficult-to-prove specific intent to burn homes and forestland, he said. Proving general intent is a logical step in proving specific intent, he said.

“If the D.A. does indicate an intent to retry him,” Baum said, “then we’ll present legal arguments as to why they should not be able to do that.”

Until his arrest in August, Harville had made his living selling video news clips to local television stations. Several local television stations aired some of Harville’s footage from the Sept. 3, 2002, blaze.

The fire destroyed five homes and caused the evacuation of 200 people.