'Barefoot Bandit' emails ridicule law enforcement, call sheriff "king swine"
(CBS/AP) SEATTLE - Colton Harris-Moore, dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit" by authorities, ridiculed police and prosecutors in emails and phone calls from prison recently, undercutting his claims that he's sorry for his two-year crime spree, the U.S. attorney's office said in court documents filed Tuesday.
Pictures: Barefoot Bandit on the Run
The 20-year-old, who is awaiting sentencing, referred to Island County Sheriff Mark Brown as the "king swine," called prosecutors who handled his case "fools," and referred to news reports as "vermin."
The self-taught pilot bragged about his two-year crime spree, during which he traveled around the U.S. in stolen cars, boats and small planes before being captured in the Bahamas in July 2010.
Federal prosecutors included excerpts from the emails and phone transcripts in a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Harris-Moore was sentenced last month to more than seven years in prison for a long string of state crimes, mostly on his hometown of Camano Island and in the San Juan Islands, but he is still scheduled to be sentenced on Friday for federal crimes, including stealing planes.
Prosecutors are seeking a six-and-a-half year sentence, the most they can ask for under the terms of Harris-Moore's federal plea deal. His lawyers asked for a sentence of just under six years in their own memorandum filed Tuesday. The plea deal calls for proceeds from Harris-Moore's movie deal to be used to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution to his victims. The judge, however, can issue a sentence outside the plea deal's suggested range.
Emma Scanlan, one of Harris-Moore's lawyers, said the email excerpts were cherry-picked from more than 700 pages of emails and phone transcripts. None of the excerpts suggests that Harris-Moore doesn't feel sorry for the people he victimized, she noted.
"Maybe he doesn't the like the sheriff's office, maybe he doesn't like the prosecutors," Scanlan said. "But he's recognizing the most important group of people."
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