SEATTLE — The attorney for the teenager accused of being the “Barefoot Bandit” is working with prosecutors to negotiate a plea deal the lawyer says could involve using movie- or book-deal profits to compensate the victims of an alleged two-year, cross-country crime spree.
Defendant Colton Harris-Moore, 19, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges that include interstate transportation of stolen aircraft and being a fugitive in possession of a firearm.
His lawyer, John Henry Browne, said a plea deal was in the works. The U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle declined to comment.
The “Barefoot Bandit” moniker was coined after a thief committed some of the crimes without socks or shoes and gained a big following on the Internet.
Harris-Moore is accused of leading authorities on a cat-and-mouse game in pilfered cars, boats and small planes after allegedly escaping a halfway house south of Seattle in 2008. This year he made a daring cross-country dash that ended four months ago after he allegedly stole a plane in Indiana, crash-landed it in the Bahamas and was captured by Bahamian police at gunpoint in a stolen boat.
In all, Harris-Moore, a self-taught pilot, is suspected of more than 70 crimes in nine states.
