The Colton saga continues

Colton Harris- Moore Following the theft of two boats, a trail that led investigators back to Camano Island, and several subsequent beach house burglaries, the saga of Colton Harris-Moore has exploded in a maelstrom of Web sites, bounty hunters, community meetings and rewards. Not to mention the press releases, fears of vigilante justice and offers of $50,000 and free legal representation to surrender.

Amidst the frenzy, the longest-standing voices have remained silent — those of the Island County Sheriff’s Office and Harris-Moore himself.

Sheriff Mark Brown did offer a press release, stating, “I was recently made aware of a citizen group raising reward money for the capture of Colton Harris- Moore.”

“As sheriff of Island County,” he continued, “I cannot promote or participate in this as a solution to the problem. I will continue to share investigative information with the various police agencies involved in apprehending Colton Harris- Moore, but not to private interest groups or bounty hunters.”

The release was in response to the announcement that the “catchthebarefootbandit. wordpress.com” blogger, who goes by David Peters, had collected money to offer a reward totaling $6,500, for information leading to the capture of Harris- Moore.

A sizable chunk of the money, $2,500, had been donated by All City Bail Bonds, which has offices throughout the King, Snohomish and Skagit counties. At the same time, Mike Rocha, with Bail Enforcement Agency, which shares a phone number with the Everett office of All City Bail Bonds, donated his personal services to locating Harris-Moore.

Josh Flickner, who runs Elger Bay Gro- cery on Camano Island, said he was asked by Peters to host a community meeting last Tuesday to get the word out.

Flickner said he thought the meeting went well.

“The purpose of the meeting was to correct all of the misinformation that was out there about Rocha’s intentions, motives and plan. A lot of people thought this was an assassination effort or something like that,” Flickner said.

“I’m real pleased with the way it turned out,” he continued. “I think the community got a lot of questions answered.”

“Unfortunately,” he noted, “some of the media did a poor job of coverage by only showing one side of the meeting. But, others did better.”

The NEWS did not receive word of the meeting.

The facts are, there is no “bounty” on Harris-Moore and Rocha isn’t acting as a “bounty hunter.”

According to the Peters blog, Rocha is a recovery agent who volunteered his services. Neither citizens nor the sheriff’s office hired him, and he will collect nothing if he apprehends Harris-Moore. Rather, his offices fronted nearly half the reward money.

Flickner said, “I think that the recovery agents will be helpful in catching Colton because they have more manpower than the sheriff and aren’t bound by jurisdictional restrictions.”

He also said people often seem to be more comfortable talking to a private investigator or recovery agent, as opposed to law enforcement.

And yes, there were angry and frustrated citizens at the meeting, but there were also people concerned for the safety of all involved, including, and maybe especially, Colton himself, Flickner said.

It is this concern for safety — for the public, law enforcement and Harris Moore — that prompted an anonymous donor to offer the young man $50,000 to peacefully turn himself in, said Edmonds attorney Jim Johanson, who is facilitating the offer and volunteering free legal representation for Harris-Moore.

Johanson said the offer expires today, June 8, and urged Harris-Moore to come forward.

“He’s 19 years old and he hasn’t hurt anybody,” Johanson said. “We’re facilitating a peaceful and safe opportunity for him to come in.”

Johanson said Harris- Moore must be tired of running and hiding, tired of looking over his shoulder.

“We want to allow him to trust somebody,” he added.

In response to potential accusations that they are “rewarding” Harris-Moore’s behavior, Johanson said, “the anonymous donor and I have the same concern — that nobody gets hurt. There are people out there who sound like they want to get involved in vigilante-ism.”

“We’re creating an opportunity to do this orderly, safely and calmly,” he added. “We want to get the word out to him to call me so I can facilitate a peaceful surrender to the local law enforcement agency and get him the $50,000.”

Johanson did acknowledge that Harris-Moore must serve the remainder of any existing sentence first.

“That’s part of it, for sure, before anything else gets addressed,” he said.

Sheriff Mark Brown’s written response to the donor’s offer was very direct.

“The Island County Sheriff’s Office will play no role in offering or supporting any attempt to offer Colton Harris Moore money for any purpose,” he said.

So far, the remaining voice in this story has continued to remain silent as of press time. There has been no word from Harris-Moore.

Attorney Jim Johanson can be reached at 425-776- 5547. Recovery agent Mike Rocha’s phone number is 425-258-9400.