The key witness in an arson case has recanted statements police say implicate a former city commissioner's son, claiming Spanish translators erred and misinterpreted his words.

What that means to the state's case against Harry Bethel Jr. is unclear, but one option is a plea agreement, according to Assistant State Attorney Val Winter. He declined to discuss specifics or reasons for a possible plea agreement.

Prosecutors may reinterview Ivan Nunez to determine what his testimony is regarding a thatched-roof tiki hut fire at the home of Bethel's cousin and business partner, with whom he was arguing, Winter said.

An interpreter who interviewed the Spanish-speaking witness in September 2007 told police Nunez said Bethel asked for his help in "throwing something over the fence and into the yard to burn the house," but he declined, according to court documents. Police say Bethel had a falling out over a real estate venture with his cousin, Kevin Degraffenreid.

Bethel is the son of former Key West City Commissioner and current Key West Bight Board Chairman Harry Bethel Sr.

Prosecutors say the younger Bethel used a gasoline-soaked towel wrapped around a gas station squeegee to set fire to the tiki hut around 2 a.m. Sept. 4. A 66-year-old woman used a garden hose to put out the fire before it spread to the house in the 2100 block of Seidenberg Avenue.

Surveillance video taken from a Circle K gas station show a white Dodge Dakota pickup truck, which police say belongs to Bethel, near the pumps, but did not capture any footage of anyone handling a squeegee, Winter said.

Bethel, 48, of Big Coppitt Key, is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 11 on felony charges of first-degree arson and third-degree possession and use of a firebomb. State law calls for a maximum of 35 years in prison if convicted.

In an unrelated case, Bethel has rejected a plea agreement that would have landed him in prison for a year and a day, Winter said.

Bethel, the owner and captain of the Kayla Renee II commercial crawfish vessel, faces two felony counts of lobster trap molesting. He was arrested in January 2008 -- while out of jail on bond in the arson case -- after a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission airplane crew allegedly saw him pulling other fishermen's traps near Mayland Shoal in the Atlantic Ocean off Sugarloaf Key, reports say.

Key West residents Lawrence Pinder, 59, and M. Shamus Davis, 30, both of Key West, were arrested and charged with Bethel, and have rejected the plea agreement as well.

All three are expected to stand trial Jan. 11.

alinhardt@keysnews.com