Elderly Robber Accused of New Crime : Arrest: The wheelchair-bound man who held up a bank to pay for his heart medicine is now charged with setting his hotel room on fire.

William Henry Hart, a 76-year-old bank robber who committed a $70 heist last year in order to buy heart medicine, is now accused of setting a downtown hotel on fire after a tiff with management, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Last year, Hart avoided prosecution in the Jan. 15 robbery after winning the sympathy of the presiding U.S. Magistrate, Roger Curtis McKee.

Hart, wheelchair-bound and in fragile health, testified he robbed only to fill a prescription. Prosecution was deferred with the condition Hart stay out of trouble for one year, said James Brannigan, chief assistant U.S. attorney.

On Jan. 8, three weeks before his robbery charges were to be dismissed, Hart was seen astride his electric wheelchair, speeding through the breezeway of the Maryland Hotel where he lived. Moments later, he called 911 from a pay phone down the street. Hart told the operator his name, his address, that his room was aflame, and that he set the fire, arson investigators said.

Hart hung up and, a few minutes later, he called again to make sure authorities were coming to get him, San Diego Police Detective Carlos Garcia said.

In San Diego Municipal Court last Friday, Hart pleaded not guilty to one felony count of arson of an inhabited dwelling.

The dispute with the hotel began when a housekeeper inadvertently discarded Hart’s false teeth while taking out the dirty laundry. Hart exchanged words with hotel manager Thomas Mix, then demanded new dentures.

Hart withheld $285 in rent and told management he had an appointment to be fitted by a dentist in Tijuana. When served with a pay-or-vacate notice, Hart allegedly poured camp stove fuel on his carpet and lit it, Garcia said.

Police did not arrest Hart until eight days after the fire, prosecutors said, the delay due to lack of a jail for the elderly and infirm. Detectives spent several days arranging a security board-and-care agreement with a county contractor. Meanwhile, Hart stayed at the St. Vincent de Paul Village, a homeless shelter.

Past reaction to Hart’s dabbling in crime has been sympathetic. After the bank robbery, Hart received much media attention and more than $2,000 from donors.

“He was viewed as some kind of tragic hero,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Waters, prosecutor in the case. “I seriously wonder if he thought he would receive the same favorable treatment this time.”

Social workers who dealt with Hart at St. Vincent de Paul said the retired merchant marine spoke of a troubled life: financial woes, failing eyesight, a heart condition, 11 marriages.

“As inappropriate as it was, that fire was his way of crying out,” said Jim DiCenzo, director of residential services at the homeless shelter. “The things Bill has done aren’t crimes as much as they are attempts at saying, ‘Help me.’ ”

On Wednesday, the U.S. attorney’s office is scheduled to decide whether to prosecute Hart’s robbery case.

Accommodations made by the legal system, and the sympathy Hart has garnered, has rankled some. “Things weren’t going well in his life, so he turned to crime, and no one did anything about it,” hotel manager Mix said. “It almost gives license to any idiot who wants to start a fire and get some more attention.”