Charges Expected In Colorado Escaped Balloon Case

It’s kinda been building up this way. Two days after a Colorado family reported to authorities that their homemade flying saucer balloon had floated out of their backyard carrying their 6-year-old boy causing a media frenzy, the sheriff of Larimer County, Colo., said Saturday evening that charges were pending in the case. The boy’s father, Richard Heene has insisted that the drama that unfolded Thursday wasn’t a publicity stunt, but met with sheriff’s officials Saturday amid lingering questions about whether he perpetrated a hoax. The boy’s mother, Mayumi Heene, was also interviewed by the sheriff department Saturday. [More...]

“We do anticipate … there will be some criminal charges filed in respect to this incident,” said Sheriff Jim Alderden, speaking to reporters in a news conference televised on CNN.

He said initial charges would likely be a misdemeanor. The department was preparing search warrants, he said, adding the possible misdemeanor charge “hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances.” He said the department was in contact with federal authorities and additional federal charges were possible.

Saturday began with anticipation, as Heene promised a big announcement at 10 a.m., but when he emerged from his home to address the gathered reporters, he simply placed a cardboard box on his front porch.

He said he has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails with questions since the dramatic flight that gained global attention and invited people to leave written questions in it, which he said he would answer at 7:30 p.m. Saturday evening.

The family has come under suspicion for their unconventional life style since the incident. They have been on Wife Swap, there were unsubstantiated reports of domestic abuse between the parents.

They have been trying to get the television network, TLC, to do a series about the family, such as in ‘Little People, Big World,’ causing many to believe the balloon escapade was merely a publicity stunt. Website, Gawker did a paid interview with Robert Thomas who claims earlier this year he and Richard Heene drew up a master plan to generate a massive media controversy using a weather balloon, to get famous, of course. Supposedly:

Thomas spent several months earlier this year working on developing a reality science TV show to pitch to networks — the “show,” Thomas says, that Falcon was referring to when he told CNN “We did it for the show.” Among the ideas that Heene, Thomas and two others came up with for their reality TV proposal — and one that he says most intrigued Heene — involved a weather balloon modified to look like a UFO which they would launch in an attempt to drum up media interest in both the Heene family and the series he was desperate to get on the air. Still, Thomas never imagined that Heene would involve his six-year-old son in what he is certain was a “global media hoax” to further Richard Heene’s own celebrity.