The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

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Richard and Mayumi Heene – the parents of the young boy thought to be flying around Fort Collins, Colo. - are being accused of a hoax and face criminal charges, according to a CNN report.

They are being accused of allegedly fabricating the story that their son Falcon climbed into a homemade flying vehicle and went flying through the sky.

The parents, who were both previously featured on the show “Wife Swap,” have allegedly been looking for fame and celebrity status since the show aired in March 2009. Authorities state they created this incident as a publicity stunt to gain nationwide attention.

This apparent hoax led to a major search and rescue mission after images were aired on television of the young boy flying through the sky in the air balloon contraption.

The aircraft landed 60 miles from where it took off, and when it was found by the rescue teams, the young Falcon was nowhere to be found.

Authorities feared the worst - that the young boy had fallen out of the balloon. Hours later, Falcon emerged from a small space where he was hiding in the attic of his parents’ house.

Falcon’s older brother said he saw his younger brother get into the balloon and even videotaped it, but it appears he did get out of it.

According to a CNN article, the silver helium balloon is 20 feet long and five feet high was found 90 minutes away from the home in a field near Colorado Springs.

Richard Heene is a meteorologist and was building a “3D low altitude Vehicle.” It was not completely ready to fly and was not meant to fly above 20ft high.

Police only questioned the whole incident after the Heene family appeared on Larry King live and during the conversation, Falcon told his father, “ you guys said, um, we did this for the show. “

Authorities, upon hearing this, decided to interview the parents again and they then determined that the whole thing could a fabrication for the parents to gain attention.

The Heenes are facing felony charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempt to influence a public servant.

Richard Heene’s attorney, David Lane, has not yet seen any evidence from authorities and he hopes that the authorities will let the Heenes turn themselves in instead of creating a big spectacle and bringing them into the station with police escorts, CNN reported.

He maintains the Heenes are good parents to their three children and for them to see their parents in handcuffs could cause devastating effects.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Department advised no comments will be given until the investigation is complete.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Criminal Defense Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.