The parents who pulled off the balloon boy hoax are already facing the prospect of jail time and paying tens of thousands of dollars in restitution over their stunt, but an investigator also wants to forbid them from making any money off their newfound fame.
Richard and Mayumi Heene were scheduled to be sentenced yesterday after pleading guilty to charges that they carried out the stunt in October to promote a reality TV show. The husband faces up to 90 days and jail, and the wife faces up to 60 days.
The Heenes are also facing a US$42,000 bill for the stunt, their lawyer said on Tuesday.
Attorney David Lane said the couple had been ordered to pay the amount in restitution for the air and land rescue effort triggered by their false report that their son Falcon had floated away in a home-made balloon.
The Oct. 15 incident became one of the most notorious hoaxes in US history, gripping millions of viewers as TV networks broadcast live coverage of the “runaway balloon.”
Lane confirmed the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office had demanded repayment for the rescue operation.
Bob Heffernan, a lead investigator in the case for the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, said ahead of the sentencing yesterday that there should also be limits on how the Heenes profit from the hoax, such as through book or TV deals.
“This would hopefully stop the Heenes from being able to exploit their criminal behavior or their children any more than they already have,” Heffernan urged the judge in a letter dated Nov. 30. “All the while the Heenes were playing us all in hopes of making themselves more marketable.”
Lane said nothing in the law allows a judge to impose such limits.
“That’s a First Amendment violation,” Lane said.
The Heenes made frantic calls to 911, the media and the Federal Aviation Administration to report that six-year-old Falcon may have been aboard the balloon. That triggered a desperate 80km chase as the craft drifted across northern Colorado’s plains — and then another desperate search once the balloon landed and the boy was nowhere to be found.
In his letter to the judge, Heffernan described his pain at having to tell the Heenes that their boy was not inside the balloon when it landed in a field.
“I wish I could make you realize the anguish I had when I went into that room,” Heffernan said. “To have the Heenes start the grieving process with me trying to comfort them and give them some hope. Then to find out later they were just acting.”
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