AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin-based businessman has been arrested and charged with a pair of felonies after allegedly setting fire to a building in Downtown Austin on Sunday.
According to a report from KVUE's media partners at the Austin American-Statesman, 75-year-old Dorsey Bryan Hardeman is accused of setting fire to a downtown property that he’d shown previous interest in buying.
The arrest affidavit states that Hardeman is being held at the Travis County Jail as of Thursday evening on charges of burglary of a building, a state jail felony and second-degree felony arson, county records show.
Hardeman is the owner of Continental Automotive Group, which operates several dealership locations in Austin, one in Dallas and two in San Juan, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. The dealership bills itself as “one of the few remaining locally owned and operated, family-run dealership groups in town.”
According to the affidavit, the Austin Fire Department (AFD) responded to the former location of Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, at 400 Nueces St., on Feb. 25. An alarm was activated at around 4 p.m., and fire crews discovered that a fire had been burning in multiple areas and had been controlled by the building’s built-in sprinkler system.
Investigators eventually determined that the fire had been deliberately ignited, according to the affidavit. Crews and investigators found metal filings and shavings on the ground below the door lock, indicating that the door lock appeared to have been drilled out.
The bike shop was not occupied or open when the fire occurred.
The affidavit stated that surveillance video captured an “older white male” entering the building at 3:45 p.m. through the front door and was carrying what appeared to be a 5-gallon gasoline container. Cameras captured the man pouring a liquid from the container, striking multiple matches and dropping the match onto the liquid, igniting the fires, over the course of a 10 minute period.
Lt. Chad Messersmith, a fire and arson investigator with AFD, wrote in the affidavit that he recognized the man in the surveillance video as Hardeman, who had previously been identified as a person of interest in a separate arson investigation from Feb. 20.
Further investigation revealed that Hardeman had owned the property next door to the bike shop and had expressed interest in purchasing the location. A sale was never made.
Hardeman's bond has been set at $10,000 for the burglary charge and $40,000 for the arson charge, according to Travis County Jail records.
Hardeman's attorney, Sam Bassett, told the Statesman that he is reviewing the case and could not provide comment.