Posted on 10/19/2009 12:56:36 PM PDT by djf
A tremendous amount of taxpayer resources were wasted on this hoax. The penalty needs to be stiff and needs to include at least some jail time as a deterrent to other whack jobs looking for their 15 minutes. You cannot create a climate where hoaxing the cops is tolerated and excused.
They interfered with FAA flight paths and caused dozens of government employees to stop their normal work to chase down their “missing” kid. Both of those are criminal, heck the FAA thing is a felony.
I think this was stupidity and hubris, not crime. That said, they played a very expensive trick on state and local government, and should be asked to pay at least a part of the cost. There have to be some consequences of their actions. They should not be left to mosey off, scot-free, and they should not be left with the idea that they can get away with it again.
It absolutely was criminal and they should both do jail time. Someone could have been killed in a rescue attempt or killed if this had come down in traffic. The financial damage that they did was substantial. They must be made an example of to prevent future nut-jobs from doing similar things for their 15 minutes of fame or to promote some business venture with a stunt like this.
Throw the book at them. The kids will be better off in foster care then with these two.
Wrong, it WAS criminal if done intentionally. Plenty of people were put at risk and the parents are damned lucky no one got hurt. Full restitution and some jail time is due. They’ll be lucky to keep custody of their children.
These morons fabricated an incident, potentially exposed law enforcement personnel and others to hazard during the latter’s pursuit of the balloon, potentially pulled those personnel away from other duties, cost the county, and other governmental units money; all for apparently, publicity.
As a retired prosecutor from New York, I would sit down and thumb through the Penal Law page by page, and charge them with everything that their conduct fit.
Since they did the stunt to enhance their pocketbook...any monies they receive from TV etc...should be used to pay expenses of disruption. You just can’t say “It’s okay”. It creates copycats....
Couple of guys down Wall Street way who wasted as much as these people - like a hundred million times as much - where are the news reports and calls for public hangings?
True justice requires some attention to scale and intent...
This was a crime. That is not my opinion, that is a fact.
I have to agree with you. Charge the family for the cost of rescue but don’t take their kids.
It really bothered me when I saw the sheriff saying that Children’s Services was called because of video’s on YouTube. Would I take my kids Storm Chasing? No. But my kids rode dirt bikes from an early age, some would say that is dangerous, should they take my kids away? What about skiing? Swimming? Hunting? Perhaps we will get to the point in time where we all just get our kids the Wii so they can do virtual things in life and not get hurt.
They are strange, yes but I don’t think they are evil. Right now, here in GA there is a story of a woman who literally starved her child. At 13 mos. he weighed 18 lbs. They are blaming it on the doctors, they never told her she had to feed this child!!! Hello? She is evil.
“caused dozens of government employees to stop their normal work “
And this is a bad thing? They should get a medal for this part. As for the whole stunt, restitution and community service. They seem a little screwed up, but I would need to hear of a LOT worse to think a foster home is appropriate.
What crime did those on Wall Street commit? If they committed a crime, then they should be prosecuted, but things like selling bundled mortgages isn’t a crime.
Yeah actually, because these are the government employees that are actually useful, the ones that do things like put out fires and rescue stranded kids. If they’d distracted the bureaucrats for an afternoon that would be OK.
I would love to see if someone pulled a stunt like this on you personally if you would be so forgiving. If they had you running around risking your life and costing you tons of money based upon a lie that they told you. I am sure you would feel the same then?
It is easy to be forgiving when it was not your money and life that they risked.
I hope that they both get charged with every possible charge and get the maximum sentence for each. They deserve it.
hey aren’t getting any money from TV. TLC was apparently in negotiations with him but when all this happened they decided the Gosselins were enough of a problem and gave him the big “don’t call us we won’t be calling you”.
Balloon-pops needs a reality check big time.
I don’t see the big house and solitary as being something that would help improve this situation.
Turds like this family COUNT on us being merciful.
Their actions were INTENTIONAL.
They knew what they were doing.
They knew the consequences, and even escalated those consequences.
The Cobra Kai had it right.
“Mercy is for the weak!”
Bare minimum would be complete restitution of every rescue worker's fully loaded pay (including 1/250 of the year's retirement, sick leave, vacation and insurance costs), all the fuel, service and depreciation costs for their vehicles (helicopters aren't cheap) along with a big fine and at least a couple months of jail time. A year would be too much, but a missing summer sounds about right. Also, don't allow them to profit from book, magazine, television or movies sales on this topic. I don't want them getting a million dollar book deal for this scam.
...The charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a felony, could result in a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
The sheriff also said of the "scientist" and "storm chaser" Richard Heene, "His education level is only high school .. He may be nutty, but he's not a professor."
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