Michael J. Fenter, a Port Townsend boat builder alleged to be living a double life as a bank robber, is expected to enter a plea in federal court next Friday, after an arraignment scheduled this week was postponed.
Fenter, 40, is accused of robbing $73,000 from a Bank of America branch in Tacoma armed with a .40-caliber Glock handgun and claiming he had a bomb that his partner could detonate from outside the building, and is suspected in three other bank robberies, the FBI said.
He is charged with bank robbery and being armed in the commission of a violent felony.
Before he was taken into custody on Oct. 8, Fenter lived on the 40-acre Compass Rose Farms with his wife, Kateen Fenter — his high school sweetheart — their three children, and his in-laws.
The three generations of the family raised wool, honey and produce sold at local farmers markets on the farm owned by Kateen Fenter and her mother.
Michael Fenter, a graduate of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend, paid the bill and the mortgage on the land the Fenters bought in 2007 with work in his field of marine carpentry, said his wife.
The arraignment, originally was scheduled Friday, was delayed because of a change of attorneys.
His first court-appointed attorney, Linda Sullivan, withdrew from the case Monday.
A new attorney, Timothy R. Lohraff, has been assigned to the case and will represent Fenter at this Friday’s hearing.
Remains in custody
Fenter remains in custody at the federal detention center in SeaTac without a posted bail.
During the robbery, Fenter allegedly told the assistant manager at the bank that he represented a group of people who were angry at the government, the FBI said.
After his arrest in Tacoma, Fenter refused to identify himself. He put a glue-like substance over his fingerprints and said his name was Patrick Henry.
He was referred to as the “John Doe bandit” until the FBI revealed his identity on Oct. 16.
The FBI also is investigating Fenter for one bank robbery in Seattle in February, one in San Francisco in April and one in Sacramento in August.
He has not been charged with those robberies.
Phone messages left for FBI spokeswoman Roberta Burroughs went unreturned Friday.
The Feb. 4 robbery of a Washington Mutual in Seattle resulted in building evacuations and street closures when a suspicious bag was left behind in the bank.
Fenter is not suspected of robbing any banks on the North Olympic Peninsula, Burroughs has said.
Fenter, who had no criminal record until his arrest last month, worked at the Sea Marine boat repair yard in Port Townsend until he quit in January.
The Fenters gave a conservation easement to Jefferson Land Trust on their land to protect salmon habitat on Snow Creek.
They worked together on the farm, aiming someday to be certified organic.
Fengter’s wife of 20 years said she learned of her husband’s arrest when an FBI agent called her on Oct. 9, and couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“I just kept telling them, ‘No, it’s not true, it’s not Michael, it’s not even a possibility,'” she said Oct. 18.
________
Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
