BOISE, Idaho -- Convicted spy Christopher Boyce pleaded innocent in U.S. District Court Thursday to charges he held up banks in three western states during his 19 months of freedom as a federal prison escaper.
Boyce, 28, currently in a federal prison in California, was flown to Boise for the arraignment.
U.S. Magistrate Jim Christensen set bond at $1 million in case the defendant was released from prison.
Christensen also ordered Boyce to appear for trial March 24 in Moscow, Idaho. Also included in the case there were Gloria Ann White and Calvin Robinson, who allegedly helped him rob banks and hide out at a summer cabin in northern Idaho.
U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ryan wasto preside at the trial.
Boyce was convicted in 1977 of selling CIA satellite secrets to Soviet agents. He was found guilty earlier this month in Los Angeles of escaping from a federal prison in Lompoc, Calif., in January 1980. Sentencing on that charge has been set for Feb. 23.
Grand jurors allege Robinson helped Boyce leave California following the escape and taught him to rob banks. The indictment also claimed Mrs. White, 42, Newport, Ore., helped Boyce in the holdups and allowed him to hide at her summer home in Bonners Ferry.
The 11-count indictment accuses Boyce of holding up banks in Lewiston and Idaho Falls, Idaho, Spokane, Wash., and Great Falls and Missoula, Mont. The document claimed the $27,000 obtained in the bank jobs was earmarked to help the fugitive flee from the United States to Russia.
Boyce was recaptured at a drive-in in Port Angeles, Wash., last August.
Mrs. White pleaded innocent Jan. 24 in Boise to charges contained in the indictment.
