‘Barefoot Bandit’ pleads not guilty to charges

SEATTLE — The teenager accused of being the “Barefoot Bandit” has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, four months after an alleged cross-country crime spree ended with his arrest in a stolen boat in the Bahamas. Through his attorney, 19-year-old Colton Harris-Moore entered the pleas this morning in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The charges against him include interstate transportation of stolen aircraft and being a fugitive in possession of a firearm. The charges stem from a crime spree that began after Harris-Moore walked away from a halfway house south of Seattle in 2008. Authorities allege he hopscotched his way around the Northwest — and then across the country — in stolen planes, boats and cars, breaking into grocery stores, homes and ATMs along the way. In one Inland Northwest incident, Harris-Moore allegedly stole a Cessna 182 on Sept. 2, 2009, from the Boundary County Airport, then crash-landed it near Granite Falls, Wash., after it ran out of fuel. Four of the counts carry maximum sentences of 10 years in prison. Trial is set for Jan. 18.