Sheriff: Charges will be filed in balloon saga

AP on Yahoo ^ | 10/17/09ap | Dan Elliott - ap

[NormsRevenge]

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A Colorado sheriff said he was pursuing criminal charges in the case of a 6-year-old boy who vanished into the rafters of his garage while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying saucer-like helium balloon.

The boy's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met with Larimer County investigators for much of the afternoon, but Sheriff Jim Alderden didn't say who would be charged or what the charges would be.

Alderden didn't call Thursday's hours-long drama a hoax, but he expressed disappointment that he couldn't level more serious charges in the incident, which sent police and the military scrambling to save young Falcon Heene as millions of worried television viewers watched.

"We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances," Alderden said. "We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance."

[editor-surveyor]

"That balloon cost beaucoup $$ to chase, thinking the child was aboard."

For sure! - But what we don't know is just who it was that said to the authorities that the kid was aboard.

[aruanan]

"We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances," Alderden said. "We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance."

"Like zoo apes, we're going to start flinging feces in the hopes that something will stick somewhere. I mean, after all, they made us look stoopid so we're justified in trying to think up something so we can make 'em hurt."

[machogirl]

that’s a good one. he can have a reality “jail” tv show?

[JLS]

It is not his job to be POed. If he is POed he should be fired immediately. Going into law enforcement means you have given up your right to opinions and you don’t have th right to have personal feelings about your job either.

You enforce the law as it is written, not as you wish it were written. Your opinion is out of bounds, not unlike military personnel are not allowed to offer political opinions.

[LibWhacker]

criminal child abuse charges

That's what I've been thinking, too. I could see the greaseball father slipping the poor kid a little Ipecac before the interviews to generate sympathy for the family. 'Course, it could be stress, as you say, but I wouldn't put anything past the old man; he doesn't seem to have much regard for the welfare of his kids.

[mlizzy]

I think there may be some criminal child abuse charges here, when all the investigating is done. Something is WAY wrong in this family. They’ve apparently dragged their kids into hurricanes as part of their “storm-chasing” obsession, and it now appears that the 6 year old was bullied into participating in a scam that tied up huge amounts of emergency personnel for hours. They were dragging that poor kid around to media interviews, where he threw up twice — both times when the question of why he didn’t come out of hiding was posed. Either the kid was genuinely ill with a stomach flu or something, in which case one vomiting episode should have been the cue to stop dragging him around to media interviews, or the vomiting was due to psychological stress in a kid who’s afraid of getting in trouble for not sticking to lies his father told him to tell. These kids are not living in a situation which is safe for their physical or psychological well-being.

I agree with you completely. It was beyond cruel to "use" his child in a hoax like this. Sicko!

[aruanan]

"We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances," Alderden said. "We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance."

"Nobody should be able to pull the wool over our eyes, take advantage of our emotions, and manipulate us with our fears with impunity and get away with it--oh, how's Obama doing? I think he's doing a really great job."

[FourPeas]

Something is WAY wrong in this family.

Yup.

[JLS]

He doesn’t charge. The DA does.

[HiTech RedNeck]

At the least, the kid sounds like a good candidate for custody (though that shouldn’t be said lightly because often the custody arrangements are almost as scummy as what the child was removed from).

In the picture earlier above, I can almost see the upset kid thinking “here we go again, when will it stop, Daddy?”

[elkfersupper]

There are more kooks per square mile in Colorado than you would believe.

We also have a plethora of the same types of nutballs all the way from Las Cruces to and beyond Taos in NM.

[metmom]

Much as I hate government intrusion in making more laws and regulations, anyone who so deceives people and expects government bailout in the form of rescue, ought to foot the bill.

It should be illegal and there should be consequences.

[norraad]

Thank you, this is all just a micro-cosuam-metaphor for the bigger flying fiasco illustrated by the animation of the U F O / Joker poster.

[Humbug]

oops, lol, you’re right. But still i think it boils down to the same thing, the sheriff looking to defuse criticism that is bound to come that this guy is only being arrested on misdemeanor charges.

[Las Vegas Ron]

I called it here before. The guy is a attention whore.

And you're a what?

BTW, it's an attention whore

[HiTech RedNeck]

Kind of like the situation where the girl who was fooled by a stupid woman colluding with some kids, committed suicide out of her dismay. Though no casualties this time. There wasn’t any law forbidding it, though tort claims may be another story. We don’t just make up laws here on the spot, as desirable as we might wish that to be in a certain situation.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[devolve]

.

This thread is already a magnet for the whining liberal apologists that sleep on FR and pretend to be conservatives

Esp. the gurus, UFO gizmo inventors, sweatlodge Messiahs (watch that story), mystic healers, magic mushroom types and those lacking in mucho (a little Spanish lingo there) gray matter

[I see my hands]

"I called it here before. The guy is a attention whore"

Gonna call it again, shrinking violet?

[Humbug]

We don’t just make up laws here on the spot, as desirable as we might wish that to be in a certain situation.

That's true and i don't think the sheriff was saying he wanted to "make up laws on the spot", just that he wanted to work with the DA and the Feds to see what laws are already on the book that might be applicable here in order to move it up from a misdemeanor to something more appropriate (not just to protect local authorities from public pressure but also to serve as a deterrent to other wackos who would think "gee, do something like this and all i have to worry about is a lousy misdemeanor!? haha, cool!"). Given the unusual nature of this case, i think it is warranted to take such a step.