Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic details of an alleged sexual assault.
Dallas developer and reality TV star Bill Hutchinson was arrested Tuesday after a 17-year-old girl said he sexually assaulted her at his Highland Park home. The 63-year-old founder of commercial real estate company Dunhill Partners was charged with sexual assault, a second-degree felony. TMZ first reported the news this morning.
I have emailed Hutchinson, who has appeared on the A+E series Marrying Millions with his 23-year-old fiancée. I will update this post if I hear back. (He told TMZ, “I’m innocent of this charge and accusation. Anyone who knows me in this city knows that I am not capable of assault, sexual or otherwise. Hopefully all of my colleagues and friends will give me the benefit of the doubt until I prove my innocence in court.”)
According to a Highland Park Police affidavit obtained by D Magazine, the 17-year-old girl was staying at Hutchinson’s home this spring. Hutchinson lives in Highland Park with his fiancée, “his 13-year-old biological son, the 16-year-old daughter of his ex-wife and her previous ex-husband, and another 17-year-old female unrelated to Hutchinson but who according to witnesses he has legal guardianship of,” according to the affidavit.
The 17-year-old told police that Hutchinson would often provide alcohol and let the teens smoke marijuana. She told police that Hutchinson had touched her inappropriately multiple times in May. She also told police that on one specific occasion, she fell asleep on a couch and awoke after “William Hutchinson digitally penetrated her vagina with his finger without her consent,” according to the affidavit. The document also says that investigators conducted an interview with another minor who alleged “similar behavior by William Hutchinson with her while they were at his residence in Laguna Beach, CA.” (He has not been charged with a crime related to that alleged incident.)
An arrest warrant was signed on June 29, and Hutchinson was arrested Tuesday. He has been released from jail on a $30,000 bond.
Prior to his reality TV turn, Hutchinson was already known around Dallas for his work in real estate. Dunhill Partners was an especially big player in the Design District; the company acquired most of the neighborhood in November of 2014. He is also a general partner in the Virgin Hotel location on Turtle Creek Boulevard.
Hutchinson’s personal life has also frequently attracted press attention. A 2012 article in D Magazine (not online, that I can find) describes “pajamas and porn stars at Bill Hutchinson’s birthday party,” and shares how Hutchinson “shed his button-down image and became a bon vivant” after a 2003 divorce.
Hutchinson made headlines again in recent years when he was set to appear on Marrying Millions with his partner, whom he met when she was 18 years old.
“Age is whatever,” Hutchinson told the Dallas Morning News in 2019. “Money comes and goes. Looks fade. Character is what’s lasting.”
