The sound you hear is of hot air being released from “balloon boy’s” dad Richard Heene’s hopes to be a big star being delfated by Colorado judge who has sentenced him to 90 days, part of it to be done in work release.
It’s a meager sentence — given the anguish he and his accomplice wife caused millions of viewers who agonized over the fate and what they felt could be the death of the Heenes’boy and the huge cost to the news media and law enforcement to deal with the event. But it’s a start at underscoring that actions have consequences. Most notably: Heene is banned from receiving any financial benefit from the case. (DARN! There go those book and movie deals and that reality series on TV.) The BBC reports:
A US man who triggered a major alert by claiming his son was adrift in a helium balloon has been sentenced to 90 days in jail – and his wife to 20.
Richard Heene and his wife reported in October their son had been carried away by the balloon – causing a media drama.
Six-year-old Falcon Heene was finally found hiding at home.
Appearing in court in Colorado, Mr Heene said he was “very, very sorry” and apologized to rescue workers and the local community.
The judge also ordered four years of supervised probation for Mr Heene, and banned him from receiving any form of financial benefit from the case.
You can just hear Heene asking his probation officer in the future whether this bans him from being on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.