By Larry King
The Philadelphia Inquirer
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — Robert J. McBrearty liked to light up while drinking, Bucks County authorities say, but it had nothing to do with cigarettes or cigars.
Over a month in the fall, police allege, McBrearty would leave the bars in Doylestown late at night and set things on fire.
McBrearty, 29, of Bristol Borough, was charged Tuesday with arson and other crimes in connection with 13 fires in Doylestown from Oct. 22 through Nov. 24.
“He has an alcohol problem and I think an anger problem,” Doylestown Police Chief James Donnelly said. “He’s like the little boy who never grew up.”
Most of the fires caused minimal damage. But one spread from an outside wicker chair to a house, endangering two occupants and causing at least $500,000 in damage, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber said.
McBrearty, a convicted burglar who was on probation for drunken driving, had been renting an apartment in Doylestown not far from most of the fires. After he moved to Bristol, the fires ceased, Furber said.
Police say McBrearty confessed, but his lawyer isn’t so sure. There’s “very little evidence that he started them,” attorney Robert Adshead said. “And there’s no evidence that he started the fire that set that house on fire.”
McBrearty remained in Bucks County Prison yesterday, unable to post 10 percent of $500,000 bail.
Furber and Donnelly said McBrearty had shown up repeatedly near the fires, leading police to question him.
McBrearty said at his arraignment that he was unemployed and had been drunk when the fires were set, Furber said. He may have set some of the fires in between bar stops, the prosecutor said.
Adshead said that wasn’t true. McBrearty, he said, “flat out denies lighting most of those.”
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