Patterico's Pontifications

1/6/2010

Balloon Boy Father Denies Hoax

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 9:51 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Richard Heene, the father in the balloon boy saga who plead guilty to a felony count of falsely influencing authorities, now claims there was no hoax:

“In his first television interview since shortly after the Oct. 15 event, Richard Heene said that he believed that his 6-year-old son, Falcon, was in the homemade balloon when it took off from the family’s Fort Collins backyard.

“We had searched the house, high and low,” Heene said, choking back tears during a taped interview for “Larry King Live” that will air on CNN. “I knew he was in the craft. … In my mind there was no other place.”

Heene now claims he plead guilty to protect his wife from deportation:

“I’m not disputing the fact that I did have to plead guilty and when I say have to, I had to do it to save my family and my wife. The threat of deportation was imminent,” said Heene, an aspiring reality television show actor and backyard scientist.”

Prosecutors have denied threatening Mayumi Heene with deportation and Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden was surprised at Heene’s claims, saying “There’s no doubt in my mind that this thing was a hoax.”

— DRJ

24 Responses to “Balloon Boy Father Denies Hoax”

  1. I’m impressed at this con man’s stamina for conning.

    Totally shameless. I hope no one had a heart attack in a Denver suburb that day, because this fella didn’t care if you needed an ambulance. There’s really no doubt that this guy will wind up on TV, is there?

    And of course, CNN is first in line. Why am I not surprised?

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  2. Don’t you just hate it when people stretch their 15 minutes of fame?

    Alta Bob (e8af2b)

  3. Ah yes, the Sen. Larry Craig defense: “I pled GUILTY only to make this incident go away as soon as possible, so that myself and my family could move ahead with our lives.”

    BULLSHIT

    So, he — by his own admission (or claim) — lied about being guilty. Either that or he lied during his initial interview with the police, and really is guilty. Either way: GUILTY of lying . . . twice, if he’s lying now about “falsely” pleading guilty.

    Icy Texan (a73096)

  4. More hot air.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  5. Heene up, man.

    GeneralMalaise (68a574)

  6. The guy has been taking lessons from Obama.

    tmac (5559f7)

  7. Classic conman.

    nk (df76d4)

  8. Is he under probation?
    If so, I would hope his probation officer takes this action by Heene into account when deciding his compliance with the terms of probation.
    Admission of perjury should have an immediate, negative effect on his probation.

    j.pickens (8b5ad5)

  9. hahaha, his wife was going to be deported!

    That is rich. Just out of curiousity was this an interview with telemundo? just saying, who believes that our immigration laws are enforced to any degree?

    A.W. (e7d72e)

  10. Call his bluff. Erase the plea agreement and start over.

    Let his wife stay in the US to care for the kids, and let’s see his sorry excuse for a 4 flusher hauled back into court to take his chances in front of a judge and jury. Caveat emptor.

    ropelight (bc3a03)

  11. Agreed, the man is a con artist and a POS, BUT…

    The day BEFORE he plead guilty his lawyer was on local tv saying the same thing, that they had threatened Mayumi with deportation if he didn’t take the deal.

    His lawyer is a snake also (Ward Churchill’s lawyer in suing University of Colorado), so take that with a grain of salt.

    All respect to our host but I have zero respect for the DA’s here in Colorado. I don’t doubt this story one bit.

    MaaddMaaxx (b91eb0)

  12. I was under the impression that his plea bargain required him to not engage in this sort of behavior.

    Soronel Haetir (2b4c2b)

  13. Her own lawyer likely advised the lady that she would become deportable if she were convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or punishable by imprisonment for one year or more.

    It’s been a lookout for criminal defense attorneys since 1997.

    nk (df76d4)

  14. It’s retroactive, too. People have been deported for marijuana convictions from 1967.

    nk (df76d4)

  15. This reminds me of the Kathleen Soliah/Sara Jane Olson case the way she plea bargained in court, but then turned right around and told everyone who would listen that she didn’t really mean it. Hopefully, Heene’s judge will smack him down the way Larry Fidler did Soliah.

    L.N. Smithee (d1de1b)

  16. It would probably be better for Mayumi to be deported to Japan anyway. Reality TV is more entertaining there.

    L.N. Smithee (d1de1b)

  17. This guy is a con man, so I really don’t feel for him. News articles I read said that she could be deported depending on the charges. Last I checked that is just merely stating a fact.

    Besides, these kids would get better parenting in a foster home than where they are now.

    Audacity (2fd5ad)

  18. “these kids would get better parenting in a foster home than where they are now.”

    That’s hard to believe, but in this case, yeah. They really treated this kid like crap and put a major crimp in his life. Watching him on Youtube is amazing. Kid wears blackface and sits inside a toilet. He cusses and flips off the camera. He has to pull horrible demeaning stunts in order to get any attention, and was left to dry up in the attic for hours, and was sick on national TV over it.

    I hope these children can grow up in a place with love and values. Not that Foster Care is some kind of fairy tale.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  19. Dustin wrote:

    They really treated this kid like crap and put a major crimp in his life. Watching him on Youtube is amazing. Kid wears blackface and sits inside a toilet.

    Actually, that was not blackface. After rapping that the family is “out on the road, [we] drop our pants to take a big load,” on of the kids in sitting in the brush with a roll of toilet paper. Then they cut to another son (I dunno which) who was doing an impersonation of “Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo” from South Park, whose catch phrase was “Heiiiidi-hiiii!”

    The fact that Heene allowed his kids to watch South Park says a lot. But even parents irresponsible enough to do that wouldn’t have made that legendarily revolting video.

    L.N. Smithee (d1de1b)

  20. Oh. My bad on that one. It’s hard to keep up. It was obvious that the child was pretending to be feces by painting himself brown and sitting in a toilet, but I missed the South Park reference.

    Just because it’s animated doesn’t mean it’s for kids. I wonder how many kids are pretending to kill US Marines with their Avatar toys right now, and their idiot parents think that’s OK because Hollywood animated the movie.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  21. I wonder how many kids are pretending to kill US Marines with their Avatar toys right now, and their idiot parents think that’s OK because Hollywood animated the movie.

    Comment by Dustin — 1/7/2010 @ 11:27 am

    The more I learn about Avatar, the more glad I am I didn’t succumb to curiosity about the 3-D wizardry.

    L.N. Smithee (d1de1b)

  22. Typical David Lane client – brazen unrepentent liar.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  23. Only the naive think all people who plead guilty are really guilty of what they’ve been charged with.

    Jaynie59 (18e5d1)

  24. Jaynie59, that’s true. Some are trying to protect someone else, which I think is rare. Most are pleading guilty to a lessor offense to avoid more severe punishment. I think this guy is just guilty and still trying to become famous.

    Stashiu3 (44da70)


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