FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The parents who pulled the balloon-boy hoax in hopes of landing a reality TV show were sentenced to jail Wednesday - 90 days for him, 20 days for her - and barred from profiting from their newfound celebrity status for the next four years.
Choking back tears, Richard Heene apologized in court for the frenzy he caused when he claimed his 6-year-old son Falcon had floated away in a giant helium balloon shaped like a flying saucer.
“I’m very, very sorry. And I want to apologize to all the rescue workers out there and the people that got involved in the community,” said Heene, 48, a UFO-obsessed backyard scientist who turned to storm chasing and reality TV after his Hollywood acting career bombed.
The sentencing was the culmination of a sham that apparently transfixed the nation inOctober with the sight on live television of the silvery balloon hurtling through the sky.
In the end, it was all a publicity stunt by a family broke and desperate for attention and money after networks kept rejecting their reality-TV-show pitches.
“What this case is about is deception, exploitation - exploitation of the children of the Heenes, exploitation of the media and exploitation of people’s emotions - and money,” District Judge Stephen Schapanski said.
Heene’s 90-day sentence includes 60 days in a work-release program that will let him pursue his job as a construction contractor during the day as long as he reports back to jail at night. The Heenes also were put on four years’ probation, during which they cannot earn any money related to the stunt. That means any book, movie or reality TV deals are off limits.
Richard Heene’s wife, Mayumi Heene, 45, did not speakduring the sentencing.
Prosecutors asked for the 90-day maximum for the husband, saying that a stern message needs to be sent to people who stage hoaxes for publicity.
Prosecutor Andrew Lewis also asked that the Heenes be forced to reimburse authorities for the full cost of chasing the balloon and investigating the hoax - an amount that could exceed $50,000. The exact sum will be determined later.
The judge gave Richard Heene until Jan. 11 to report to jail so that he could spend Christmas with his family. His wife will serve her 20 days behind bars after her husband completes his sentence. Her time served will be flexible - she can report to jail on 10 weekends, for example - sothat the couple’s three children are cared for, the judge said.
At the sentencing, the prosecutor provided a more detailed timeline of the hoax.
He said Richard Heene was working with a collaboratorthroughout the year to pitch a reality series about madcap experiments and inventions. By late September, it became clear that the networks weren’t biting.
At the same time, the Heenes’ finances were collapsing - they weren’t paying bills, checks were bouncing and banks were threatening to close accounts, Lewis said.
The Heenes set in motion the balloon hoax in early October as a way to jump-start the reality TV effort and get some attention.
Heenebeganseekingmoney to buy helium tanks and studying weather patterns to find the right day for the launch. He eventually settled on Oct. 15; the weather was right, and his kids were home from school with parent-teacher conferences.
The balloon floated away that afternoon with Falcon thought to be aboard. The Heenes first called the Federal Aviation Administration, then a TV station and finally 911.
Authorities launched a desperate search for little Falcon, using military helicopters and dozens of officers from several police agencies, before the boy turned up at home hours later. The Heenes said they realized he had been hiding all along in the rafters after his father had yelled at him for fooling around with the balloon.
But the story soon began falling apart, especially after Falcon blurted out to his father during a CNN interview that evening, “You had said we did this for a show.”
The parents were arrested and pleaded guilty in November under deals with prosecutors that called for up to 90 days behind bars for the husband and 60 days for the wife, a Japanese citizen who could have been deported if convicted of more-serious charges.
She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of knowingly filing a false report with emergency services, and her husband pleaded to a felony count of falsely influencing authorities.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/24/2009