CAMANO ISLAND — Everett bounty hunter Mike Rocha on Tuesday outlined his plan for bringing the teenage fugitive Colton Harris-Moore to justice.
If Harris-Moore is willing to surrender, Rocha said he’s willing to work for free to help the teen try to post bond and to work with an attorney who may be able to keep him from behind bars — all without cost to the fugitive.
“If he doesn’t want to come forward, we need to find him,” Rocha told a packed house at the Elger Bay Elementary School gymnasium Tuesday.
The meeting was the first public forum to discuss Harris-Moore on Camano Island in nearly two years. In July 2008, Island County Sheriff Mark Brown talked with residents after a string of burglaries that were pinned on the island’s most notorious son.
This time, the meeting wasn’t orchestrated by police.
Local businessman Josh Flickner ran the meeting in place of a Seattle blogger who calls himself David Peters. Flickner welcomed the crowd of about 200.
Peters is a pseudonym the blogger has been using to write entries on catchthebarefoot bandit.org, a website he started that’s dedicated to putting Harris-Moore behind bars. The blogger told Flickner he couldn’t attend the meeting.
It was Rocha, the owner of the Bail Enforcement Agency, who fielded questions, some supportive and some antagonistic, during the hourlong meeting.
Rocha said he has nearly three decades of experience bringing criminals to justice. Of the 100 cases he’s working, Rocha said Harris-Moore’s apprehension will take priority.
Working with All City Bail Bonds of Seattle, Rocha said he’s contributed $2,500 to a private reward fund for information leading to Harris-Moore’s arrest.
Flickner said a reward fund now totals around $6,500.
If mention of a reward fund sounds familiar, there was talk in August 2008 when the Camano Island Chamber of Commerce set up a fund. Flickner said there’s still about $550 in a bank account set up then. At the time, Crimestoppers kicked in another $1,000, and a representative said Tuesday that group’s offer is still valid.
Brown said in 2008 that he didn’t believe in putting out a bounty on Harris-Moore.
Brown also doesn’t believe in working with a bail recovery agent, he said Friday. The sheriff said he “cannot promote or participate in this as a solution to the problem.”
The job of putting Harris-Moore behind bars should be left to law enforcement, he said.
Harris-Moore, 19, has been on the run since he escaped from a Renton group home in April 2008. Since then, he’s suspected of breaking into dozens of homes and business in five Washington counties, British Columbia and Idaho. Police also believe he’s taken four planes, luxury cars and power boats.
It is unclear if the escape and the crime spree would somehow disqualify Harris-Moore from obtaining bail.
So far agents with the FBI and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and police trained in man-tracking haven’t been able to take Harris-Moore into custody.
“How many more experts do we need?” Camano Island resident Bec Thomas asked Rocha on Tuesday. She demanded that he differentiate his efforts from those of a vigilante.
Elizabeth Sounder disagreed. She believes Harris-Moore has been loose too long.
“He’s caused a lot of heartache,” Sounder said.
Some people spoke compassionately about the teenager, urging him to surrender. One man said he’d like to see Harris-Moore killed. The man declined to give reporters his name.
“He’s still at large and it’s kind of a negative on the community,” said J.P. DeBoer, a Realtor on Camano. The story of Harris-Moore has drawn international media attention, not the kind of publicity that sells vacation homes.
DeBoer said he’s been forced to explain to homebuyers that Camano Island still is a safe community. He just spends more time talking about security systems, he said.
DeBoer wasn’t convinced that the bounty hunter will be more effective than police.
“I think that’s kind of ridiculous,” he said.
Police often welcome the assistance of bail bondsmen and recovery agents, said John Gray, a former police chief in Arlington who now consults with police and teaches criminal justice at Northwestern University.
“They are great partners and can be another set of eyes and ears, but they are not substitutes for law enforcement,” he said.
It’s not known if Harris-Moore is armed, but since he’s been on the run for so long, it’s likely he won’t give up easily and may resist violently, Gray said.
“That probability makes this a matter for the professional peace officers to handle,” he said. “They have the best professional practices, the resources and have a stake at continuing to earn the public’s trust in keeping the community safe.”
Still, bondsmen and recovery agents often have some advantages over police, he said. For example, when Dog the Bounty Hunter, the star of a reality television show, bursts into homes without warrants, it’s likely because the fugitive had signed a contract waiving certain rights.
Harris-Moore is wanted, but he did not skip out on a bail bond.
Bondsmen “also are typically not limited by public funding restrictions, political jurisdictions, the public’s expectations or scrutiny, or the constitutional protections of the accused,” Gray said.
The investigation into Harris-Moore likely is far more complex then just putting him behind bars.
“Months after he is in custody, the quality of the physical evidence that is collected and preserved, the willingness of citizen witnesses to step up and participate in the justice system, and the scrutiny of what the police did will determine what will eventually happen with Mr. Harris-Moore,” Gray said.
“Apprehension is only one piece of this work.”
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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