A Bigfork area man accused of robbing a Lakeside bank on Sept. 28 has pleaded not guilty.
Steven Norred, 55, entered his plea to felony robbery in Flathead District Court on Oct. 20 in front of District Judge David Ortley.
Norred is accused of demanding money at Glacier Bank in Lakeside last month after showing the tellers what appeared to be a handgun. The alleged robber was wearing a black helmet during the heist, according to court records, and escaped on a silver and red motorcycle.
The robber stole more than $14,000, records state.
A witness at the bank followed the suspect after he left the bank and lost him on a road outside of town. The witness reported seeing a truck pull out of a logging road and gave the license plate number to investigators.
The truck was tracked to Norred’s mother, who allegedly told investigators that she had purchased it for her son.
When officers located Norred later that day, they pulled him over in a traffic stop. Court records state that officers could see a pistol in a black holster and a stack of cash in the middle console of the truck, along with a bag containing several cash bundles.
A search warrant executed on the truck produced about $3,600, which employees at Glacier Bank allegedly said was bundled the same way they bundle their cash at the bank.
Another search warrant for Norred’s property allegedly turned up a $20 bill with a matching serial number as the bills stolen from Glacier Bank.
Deputies found the motorcycle on Sept. 29, hidden in the woods. The vehicle identification number came back registered to a man who said he sold it to a “short guy with a bushy mustache who lived in Bigfork and was a contractor,” records state, matching Norred’s description.
According to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Sept. 28 robbery was similar to at least five others that have occurred in western Montana in the last two years, including those at Muralt’s Truck Stop in Missoula in September 2009; at First Interstate Bank in Bigfork in September 2010; at Glacier Bank in Lakeside in November 2010; at First Valley Bank in Seeley Lake in April of this year; and Bitterroot Valley Bank in St. Regis in May 2011.
According to a press release from the FBI, the suspect wore a motorcycle helmet and escaped on a motorcycle in four of the five other robberies. Prior to last month’s bank robbery, the FBI had offered a $5,000 reward for information about the robberies.
Norred has not been charged in these other cases.
The judge scheduled Norred’s pretrial conference for Feb. 29 and a trial in spring. Norred remains jailed in the Flathead County Detention Center.