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."

[Rome2000]

Apparently the Sheriff is the attention whore,I guess not enough time and money have already been wasted on this family of idiots.

Maybe the Sheriff figures bringing charges will serve as a deterrent lest someone else leave their experimental aircraft unattended.

[Oztrich Boy]

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

That would be Richard Heene

911 transcript

Dispatcher: ... And you're sure that he's in that?

RH: Yeah, we looked everywhere and then my son just said — he's terrified — he said yeah he went inside just before it went off.

[JLS]

I take it you would complain if given a warning when stopped for speeding?

No, but it is not the job of the police to offer the opinion to me or the press that the speed limit where I am driving is too low or too high.

[Gondring]

Have you seen their lovely music video?

[Gondring]

I hope you saw the news conference today and learned something about law enforcement.

Besides, you ought to take up your beef with the legions of FReepers who think that LEOs should exercise discretion in their positions.

[editor-surveyor]

Doesn’t look good for him. What a father!

[JLS]

I did not see the press conference nor am I interested in it or learning about the sheriff’s opinion on anything. I think using discretion is wise in most situations.

Certainly US soldiers who are not allowed to express political opinions about military policy use discretion in their behavior in action. Good grief, don’t you understand the diffeerence between discretion and opinion? It is just not the territory of the sheriff to offer opinion on the policy of the legislature UNLESS called to a hearing on some particular bill. Put another way it is above the pay grade of all law enforcement to question the law they take cash to uphold.

[Gondring]

enjoy the press conference today?

[Humbug]

I didn’t watch it. What happened that you think i would have enjoyed?

[Gondring]

I didn’t watch it. What happened that you think i would have enjoyed?

I didn't see the whole thing, but I did see a bit of it. In one part, they went through how they misled the nuts so they could get more evidence against them, for charges that were not just the misdemeanor.

Having people think cops are dumb is one of their best weapons against perps.

[Humbug]

Having people think cops are dumb is one of their best weapons against perps.

yes, i definitely agree. I have been thinking all along that the cops were taking the Colombo approach of only pretending that they didn't suspect this family of putting on a show for everyone. It's the smart thing to do and the father, especially, was probably so convinced of his ability to con people that he probably had no doubt that he had fooled the police.

[potlatch]

LOTS of news about it today!!

[aruanan]

Not really. This is a tread about a hoax, not about Obama. Yet you kept harassing people about their interest in this story. People don’t need to be focused on Obama 100% of the time... that would be mentally ill.

In itself, this story is only a story because it's a story. If no one had ever heard anything, an empty balloon sailing off into the sky would have been nothing but an empty balloon sailing off into the sky. Intrinsically, it's nothing.

Obama, though intrinsically zero, has done things which, even if no one in the United States heard of them, would still have an egregious impact on everyone's life.

If the events of the balloon story had never happened, everyone's life would still be pretty much the same. If Obama and all his leftist colleagues and what they've done and what they plan to do suddenly disappeared, everyone's life would be dramatically improved or at least not threatened.

[GovernmentShrinker]

No, I’m happy to say I have NOT seen their music video (and I have every intention of NEVER seeing it).

[coloradomomba]

Henne have retained David Lane as their attorney, he is the same guy who represented Chief Ward Churchill, that one didn’t turn out well for the chief.

[potlatch]

Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that.