
Bail was set at $1 million for a man suspected of the brutal home invasion robbery of former District 1 City Councilman Harry Mathis, now the chairman of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Board. Harvey Henry Duson, 45, pleaded not guilty on March 15 to charges of kidnapping for robbery, residential burglary, robbery, three counts of false imprisonment, attempted arson and felon in possession of a firearm. Mathis was beaten in the Jan. 11 incident in which three men threatened Mathis, his wife and a neighbor in his University City home. Mathis was returning home and was confronted in the garage by one of the suspects. He fired a gun twice at the suspect believed to be Duson, but the bullets missed. Tanya Sierra, public affairs officer for the District Attorney’s Office, said if Duson is convicted of all charges, he faces a sentence of 115 years to life in prison. Duson appeared before San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth, who set a preliminary hearing for March 28. Duson was arrested Feb. 15 in Nevada after leading several law enforcement agencies in a high-speed chase that crossed state lines and ended after his car tires were deflated by a spike strip. He was injured in a crash that also hurt another motorist and he was hospitalized in Las Vegas until being extradited to San Diego March 14. The two other suspects in the home invasion remain unknown.








