By Allen Schauffler, KING5
COUPEVILLE, Wash. -- The defense team of "The Barefoot Bandit" paints a detailed and at times hard-to-read picture of a horrible childhood, a grotesque drama involving an alcoholic mother, violent and abusive father and a heroin-addicted stepfather.
"Dysfunctional" barely begins to describe this wobbling, changing, explosive family. In fact, say his attorneys, that remarkable, almost mythic series of thefts, burglaries and vandalism can be attributed in part to the conditions of his early life, "... the abuse, humiliation and neglect he endured throughout his childhood."
You can read a broad outline of that abuse and the living conditions under which he was raised in the opening statements of the defense team's "Mitigation Package" presented in advance of his sentencing on Friday. And remember, this is Colton Harris-Moore's life as described by the team of lawyers, headed by Seattle attorney John Henry Browne, whose goal it is to make the?"Bandit" seem as vulnerable and guiltless as possible.
His mother, Pamela Kohler, is clearly the bad-girl of the defense's narrative to the judge.
Stories of her smoking, drinking and fits of anger are told and retold. A brother tells investigators Kohler continued to drink when she knew she was pregnant and once said, "I'm not going to quit drinking because of some 12-year-old." This was at a time when her son was showing up for school about half the days he was supposed to and had started stealing and committing acts of vandalism.
Harris-Moore himself is quoted during a clinical assessment when he was 12, that he wanted his mom to quit smoking and drinking, get a job and keep food in the house, and "... Mom refuses."
More documents in the 'Barefoot Bandit' case
The psychiatrist hired by the defense to test and investigate what makes Harris-Moore tick concludes that he may have suffered some form of brain damage at an early age that was never properly assessed or treated. He also says Harris-Moore isn't likely to reoffend and his prognosis is good as long as he gets proper attention and treatment.
He says a lot more than that too, detailing a horrible life in a horrible environment among horrible, self-absorbed, alcohol and drug-addicted people, people who normally would have been expected to offer a son and stepson support and love and a family structure.
It's not pretty. In fact it's plenty ugly. Just one side of the story, to be sure.
Harris-Moore will be in Coupeville to enter guilty pleas and to accept sentencing. He has already pleaded guilty to seven federal felony charges and will be sentenced for those crimes next month. Any sentences from the Washington state charges and the federal charges are expected to be served concurrently.
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