Crime & Safety
Dunellen Man Indicted on Charges Stemming From March Fire
Grand jury indicts Owen Harshaney on five counts of attempted murder.
As friends and family members work to raise money for his legal defense, Dunellen resident Owen Harshaney, 22, was indicted by a Somerset County grand jury Wednesday on multiple charges related to a March 22 fire at a residence on Brandywine Rise, in Green Brook.
Harshaney was charged with one count of aggravated arson and five counts of attempted murder (first degree)—one each for the family members who were at home during the fire. He was charged with three counts of aggravated arson in May.
Prosecutors had said Harshaney set the fire in a jealous fit of anger concerning the new boyfriend of a former girlfriend, but his friends say he "is the police’s first suspect though they lack direct evidence" on a GoFundMe.com page collecting money for his legal fees.
Harshaney, a business major at Rutgers—Newark and a member of the school's baseball team, is being held on $75,000 bail.
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