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Lawyer: US balloon boy parents to plead guilty
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-13 02:19 FORT COLLINS, Colorado: The Colorado parents who reported their 6-year-old son floated away aboard a helium balloon will plead guilty to some charges so that the family can stay together, the attorney for the boy's father said Thursday. Richard Heene will plead guilty in the alleged October 15 hoax to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, his attorney David Lane said. Mayumi Heene - a Japanese citizen who could have been deported if convicted of more serious charges - will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor, he said. Prosecutors haven't announced whether they've filed charges in the case, but a spokeswoman said the district attorney would have a statement later Thursday morning. The Larimer County sheriff's office, which recommended criminal charges, hasn't been notified of any charges, spokeswoman Eloise Campanella said.
The most serious of the charges recommended by Sheriff Jim Alderden would have carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison. The saga gripped a global audience, first with fear for the safety of 6-year-old Falcon Heene and then with anger at his parents when authorities accused them of perpetrating a hoax. After the boy was found safe at home, sheriff's officials contacted social workers to make sure the children were in a healthy environment. Lane said the Heenes' agreement with prosecutors doesn't call for removing Falcon or the couple's other two children - ages 8 and 10 - from the parents' custody. Mayumi Heene's attorney, Lee Christian, did not return a call. The Heenes didn't answer when reporters knocked on the door of their home Thursday morning, and Mayumi and Richard Heene left the home without commenting to reporters. The children weren't with them. Lane said prosecutors insisted on a "package deal" that required Richard Heene to plead guilty to a felony so Mayumi Heene could plead guilty to a misdemeanor and avoid deportation. "He feels like he's got to do what he's got to do to save his wife from being deported," Lane said. Lane accused law enforcement officers and prosecutors of hypocrisy for professing concern about the Heene children's welfare but threatening "to deport a loving, kind, caring mother." Asked if the deportation threat was explicit, Lane said, "That was all out there, all the time. That was part of the discussion." Lane said he has been negotiating with prosecutors since shortly after the case broke. He said Mayumi Heene's attorney also was part of the talks. The couple's frantic calls to authorities, saying they feared their son Falcon might be aboard a homemade balloon that had escaped from their suburban Fort Collins back yard, triggered a frenzied response before the balloon landed in a dusty farm field without the boy inside. The Heenes said they found Falcon at home - hiding, they said. Relief soon turned to suspicion. During a live interview on CNN hours after the balloon chase, Falcon looked to his father and said, "You had said that we did this for a show." |
