A transient who set fire to the vacant InCahoots dance club in Mission Valley was allowed this week to enter a drug treatment program after serving 99 days in jail.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring placed Joel Henry Humphrey, 47, on two years probation. He can leave jail anytime an established treatment program finds a bed for him now that he has served 99 days, said Moring.

Humphrey’s attorney, Ryan Cannon, asked the judge not to impose any fines or fees because his client is homeless and has no money to pay them. A restitution hearing for $2 million was delayed to July 7.

Humphrey, wearing jail clothes, did not say anything. He pleaded guilty in March to recklessly causing a fire of a structure and could have received two years in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Spencer Sharpe said Humphrey set some material on fire in order to smoke some methamphetamine, and the fire grew larger. Humphrey then escaped before the structure burned mostly to the ground on Christmas Day.

Cannon asked the judge to delete a probation requirement that barred Humphrey from possessing “incendiary devices” while on probation, saying Humphrey smokes cigarettes and he could be in violation just from have a lighter on him.

Sharpe told Moring that requirement was “a standard condition” of defendants convicted of arson-related offenses and he did not want that requirement removed.

“He’s not to possess incendiary devices,” ruled Morning.

If Humphrey is not accepted to a drug treatment program by June 13, he will be released from jail, according to a notice from the sheriff’s department.

The Christmas fire was the third such blaze in the vacant building after the popular country western dance club closed in 2018, but Humphrey was not charged with the other two fires.

The former dance hall on Mission Center Road has not been occupied since it closed, but the owner has tried to sell it. It is surrounded by other offices, but the fires did not spread to other buildings.

(Foto de cortesía)