CAMERAMAN TO FACE 2ND ARSON TRIAL JUDGE WON'T DISMISS 2 COUNTS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - A judge ruled Wednesday that a Palmdale freelance news cameraman will be tried a second time on charges he set a September 2002 brush fire that destroyed four Bouquet Canyon homes and blackened 5,000 acres.

Judge Michael Pastor denied a defense motion to dismiss the case against 24-year-old Joshua Harville and set a pretrial date in Antelope Valley Superior Court for next month.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury in March acquitted Harville of four counts of arson but deadlocked 8-4 in favor of not guilty on two other arson charges.

Pastor denied a request by Harville's attorney to dismiss the two remaining counts. Harville remained free on a written promise to appear in court.

``He ruled that legally double jeopardy did not apply, and that therefore the People should be allowed to retry to case unless he, the judge, determined that it would be unjust to put Josh through another trial,'' said Alan Baum, Harville's attorney. ``He decided it would not be unjust, that these were serious charges and the People were entitled to retry them.''

Baum said Harville was disappointed.

``We thought that when the first jury acquitted on the five counts and voted 8-4 not guilty on the other two counts, that it was clear that he was innocent and only some bizarre misunderstanding by four of the jurors resulted in the hung jury,'' Baum said. ``By finding him not guilty in counts 3 to 7, the jury found he had not set any fires, but they hung on the more serious counts. It makes no sense at all.''

Harville drew investigators' suspicion because he shot early video footage of the fire - one of four that year between Palmdale and Santa Clarita that together burned more than 33,000 acres - and because his wife had a car that resembles one seen parked next to Bouquet Canyon Road when the fire broke out.

Harville has acknowledged driving to the fire, but said he went there to shoot videotape to sell to Los Angeles television stations only after he heard over a police scanner the radio call reporting the fire.

Friends and co-workers said he was miles away in Palmdale when the fire broke out.

Harville was arrested July 31 outside the Palmdale courthouse after he discovered an electronic tracking device attached to his car and, thinking it might be a bomb, alerted authorities. The device had been placed by arson investigators.

During the trial, defense witnesses including a California Highway Patrol captain testified they saw Harville at the fire in his Ford Crown Victoria sedan, not his wife's Toyota. Video footage and photographs showed the Ford there, Baum said.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com