The Colorado governor has pardoned a couple convicted of criminal mischief for making a “balloon boy” out of 200, in which they created a global media sensation by temporarily destabilizing their son with a false report.
Approving Richard and Mayumi Hee as executives, Governor Jared Police said the 59- and 59-year-old couple now paid their debt to society for their “glory” as time and resources were wasted on law enforcement.
The couple reported on October 15, 2009, that their six-year-old son, Falcon, had been taken away with a domestic helium balloon, which had crashed into the family’s backyard in Fort Collins, Colorado.
News footage shows a silver balloon, which looks like a flying saucer, ascended from northeastern Colorado for 90 minutes trailed by a National Guard helicopter as authorities prepared to divert flight traffic around Denver International Airport.
Millions of people rallied to do live coverage on television and the internet, finally watching the balloon land in a wheat field. No craft and no Falcon rider, the youngest of the couple’s three children, eventually joined the family’s garage attic.
Investigators said the mother later admitted that the purpose of the stunt was to get the family to receive their own reality TV show.
After appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live program, Heinz’s initial account was solved in which Falcon was asked why he had been in hiding for so long. Seeing his parents first, the boy replied: “You said we did this for a show.”
Richard Hee pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to influence a public servant, which is a felony, and has been sentenced to 30 days in prison. Her spouse pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of filing a false report and ordered 20 hours of supervised community service.
The husband’s lawyer, David Lane, told Reuters the family, who live in Florida, were “very grateful” to the police, but that he had arrested prosecutors in the case. Lane said prosecutors told Richard Hein that they would go into deportation of Mumi, a Japanese national, until he pleaded guilty to a crime. “Richard had absolutely no choice, so he took it.”
The Balloon Boy case was part of a four-sentence revocation granted Wednesday by 18 pardons and first-session Democrat police.
