“Ballon Boy” parents plea guilty to hoax charge

Parents in last month’s  Colorado’s “balloon boy” incident case will plead guilty to offenses for creating a hoax when they reported their son had flown away in a large balloon.

Richard and Mayumi Heene are pleading Friday morning in Larimer County Court, according to a statement issued by their attorney.

Mayumi Heene is expected to plead guilty to an offense of false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor of the lowest level.

Richard Heene is also expected to plead guilty to a felony offense of attempting to influence a public servant.

Though the Heenes could receive jail time for the charges, the prosecutor has recommended only probation.

The threat of deportation for Mayumi Heene was a factor in the plea deal negotiation.

“Mayumi Heene is a citizen of Japan. As such, any felony conviction or certain misdemeanors would result in her deportation, even though her husband and children are Americans,” the statement said.

“It is supremely ironic that law enforcement has expressed such grave concern over the welfare of the children, but it was ultimately the threat of taking the children’s mother from the family and deporting her to Japan which fueled this deal.”

On October 16, a large silver balloon came loose from moorings in the Heenes’ yard and floated over Colorado. Mayumi Heene called 911 and said the couple’s 6-year-old son Falcon was inside.

Millions of people across the country watched the saga on television and the Internet for nearly two hours as military aircraft tracked the balloon in the air and rescuers chased it on the ground. Later they found the child was at home hiding the entire time.

Mayumi Heene later admitted the whole thing was a hoax, authorities said.

Court documents released last month said the couple hatched the plan about two weeks before the incident and “instructed their three children to lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax.”

Their motive? To “make the Heene family more marketable for future media interests,” the documents said.

-This family gets the big SMH award for the month.  They had the world praying for them, but it was all a lie to get on TV