In a move that was a bit of a surprise, a judge has sentenced both Richard and Mayumi Heene, mom and dad to Falcon Heene, better known as “Balloon Boy,” to jail time for their part in a hoax that captured national attention back in October. The Heenes plead guilty – Richard to felony charges of attempting to influence a public servant and Mayumi to misdemeanor false reporting to authorities. Both were expecting to serve no jail time and be on probation for the plea agreement – but the judge in the case wasn’t having it.

Richard Heene — the moron behind the Balloon Boy hoax — was just sentenced to 90 days in jail for his role in the October incident. The judge has allowed Heene to serve 60 of the 90 days on a “work-release program” — in which he’ll be allowed to seek work as a construction contractor while doing his time.

Richard was also ordered to 4 years probation. The judge also imposed a condition forbidding Richard from profiting from the Balloon Boy hoax during the four year period of his probation.

During the hearing, Heene appeared to be choking back tears and he apologized for the incident.

Heene will begin his sentence on January 11, 2010.

UPDATE: Mayumi Heene was sentenced to 20 days in jail for her role, which she’ll serve after her husband completes his time.

[From TMZ]

In addition, the Heenes were ordered to pay a $42,000 fine – the amount the state of Colorado spent trying to find and rescue Falcon, who was hiding in the garage the whole time. Wow! The state of Colorado doesn’t mess around! Let’s hope this entire story serves as a cautionary tale to famewhore parents around the country. I do feel sorry for the kids, though. Their parents put their own desire to be on TV before the well being of their children. It’s gonna be a weird Christmas in the Heene house, that’s for sure!

Balloon Boy’s family will stay together and out of jail, thanks to the extremely kind legal system in Fort Collins, Colorado. Both Richard and Mayumi Heene took plea deals: Richard to felony charges of attempting to influence a public servant and Mayumi to misdemeanor false reporting to authorities. They will each serve only probation. It seems that most of this was agreed to because Mayumi is a Japanese citizen and could very well have been deported if she’d been found guilty of a felony. However prosecutors thought there was a good chance Richard could be acquitted at trial, which would leave the family without a mother, and the much crazier father the sole caregiver.

The Colorado parents who reported their 6-year-old son floated away aboard a helium balloon will plead guilty to some charges and serve probation so that the family can stay together, the attorney for the boy’s father said Thursday. Richard Heene will plead guilty in the alleged Oct. 15 hoax to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, his attorney David Lane said. Mayumi Heene — a Japanese citizen who could have been deported if convicted of more serious charges — will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor, he said.

Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they’ve filed charges in the case and didn’t immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment on the plea agreement. The Larimer County sheriff’s office, which recommended criminal charges, hasn’t been notified of any charges filed in the case, spokeswoman Eloise Campanella said. Lane didn’t address whether the pleas would include monitoring of the couple. Mayumi Heene’s attorney, Lee Christian, did not return a call, and the Heenes didn’t answer when an Associated Press reporter knocked on their door Thursday morning.

As part of the plea deal, Lane said prosecutors have agreed to let both parents serve probation sentences. The most serious of the charges recommended by Sheriff Jim Alderden would have carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Keeping the family together was a main factor in reaching the deal, Lane said in a statement. “Upon reviewing the evidence, arguably, Mayumi could have possibly ended up being deported and Richard could have proceeded to trial and had a good chance at an acquittal,” Lane said in a statement. “This, however, would have put the family at grave risk of seeing a loving, caring, compassionate wife and mother ripped from the family and deported. That was not an acceptable risk, thus these pleas.”

[From the Associated Press]

It isn’t a fair solution, but the reasoning makes some sense. It sounds like the attorneys were trying to make sure that the more stable parent wasn’t sent away leaving the less stable parent in charge. And obviously they haven’t found cause to remove the children from the home. It’s not a perfect or even just conclusion by any means. And the thought that those three little boys will still be under their father’s influence is rather frightening. I doubt Richard Heene is so crazy that he’d try something this dumb again, but who knows. Even if he doesn’t, his crackpot nature will still influence his sons, and I doubt they’ll have a stable upbringing. It’s good that they boys will still have their mother, but I doubt they’ll ever have normalcy.

Everyone enjoys a good topical Halloween costume. Well, except for those guys that are still wearing Nixon masks. That’s about as clever as dressing up as a ghost. So what’s the “it” costume this year? Aside from Kate Gosselin’s hair of course. Why Balloon Boy, naturally! And as funny as Kate’s hair is, I’ve definitely seen women in Brooklyn sporting similar hairstyles for years now. So depending on the fashion sense in your area, it could be difficult for people to tell you’re in costume in the Gosselin wig.

But they’ll definitely know you’re something amazing when you dress up as Balloon Boy! At first they’re going to think you’re carrying a giant silver thermostatic chef’s hat. And that’s okay; you’re just going to have to explain it to them. Then wait for the laughs to erupt as they chuckle at your creativity. Or at least your ability to buy things off the internet last minute.

The news that a Canadian company is already selling a Balloon Boy costume for Halloween, just days after millions of people around the world were concerned for the safety of a 6-year-old boy said to be in mortal danger, is a measure of how rapidly the Heene family drama, played out live on 24/7 cable news, moved from tragic to comic.

When Karl Marx wrote that history repeats, first as tragedy and then as farce, the length of a news cycle was in part determined by the number of hours it took a pigeon to fly between major cities. Today that cycle seems at times to have been reduced to the number of minutes it takes someone to produce a YouTube video showing Hitler complaining about the news event.

As if to provide the perfect ending to the media-studies thesis that must surely be in the process of being written about the Heene family, the company selling the costume is promoting it with this Web video, which is a parody of the apparently staged home video the family provided to broadcasters.

[From the New York Times blog The Lede]

I guess you’re really going as Balloon Boy’s mom or dad, depending on your gender. They suggest adding your own box, but I’ll point out that Balloon Boy wasn’t actually anywhere around the balloon, that was his parents. If you were to dress up as Balloon Boy, you’d just be an average kid with a close-cropped haircut looking confused about why you’re hiding in the attic. And probably wondering why your dad is so messed up in the head, and if at six years old you’re too young to pull out the DSM-IV and diagnose him with something. Maybe that’s just me.

Here’s the site if you want to buy the Balloon Boy costume. I don’t know why, but I strenuously urge you to. Make sure you keep it away from children, so they don’t fly off or end up traumatized by your insanity.

Thanks to Fame Pictures for the photos.

Yesterday the Sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado announced that the infamous “Balloon Boy” Heene family would face possible felony charges over a bizarre incident in which authorities tried in vain to rescue a six year old boy thought to have been trapped inside a homemade weather balloon. The boy, Falcon, was ultimately found hiding in the family’s attic. When questioned why he didn’t come out after hearing his family calling for him, Falcon answered “you said we did this for the show.” In two subsequent interviews, Falcon got sick and threw up when asked whether he was really hiding.

The sheriff, who initially insisted that he believed the Heene’s account, claims the whole thing was an elaborate fraud meant to drum up interest in a reality show. The Heene family has been on “Wife Swap” twice and the father is a known publicity-seeker. Authorities searched the Heene home early Sunday morning, seizing computers and documents, and the Sheriff said that they turned up evidence that this was a stunt planned out at least two weeks ago. The Heenes have not yet been arrested or charged, though. Both parents were interviewed by police separately, and The NY Times reports that due to Colorado law cops can’t report whether they confessed.

What’s more is that child protective services have been notified and are investigating the Heenes, who have three boys: Falcon, 6, Ryo, 8, and Bradford, 9. Adding to the evidence that Richard and Mayumi Heene are awful parents is a video of their sons singing a profane song they made up called “Not Pussified.” In one scene, one of the children is shown sitting in a toilet while covered in a black substance meant to look like feces.

Three days after the nation watched the televised image of a silver flying saucer-shaped balloon traveling across the Colorado sky, it turns out the saga of the balloon boy may have been all hot air.

“It has been determined this was a hoax. It was a publicity stunt,” Larimer County, Colo., Sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters Sunday. He said no arrests will be made until the investigation is complete.

Alderden said the hoax was hatched more than two weeks ago by either one or both of 6-year-old Falcon Heene’s parents as a means of landing their own reality TV show. Authorities are investigating whether others are involved.

The Heene family, who spoke to investigators Saturday, may be charged with two felonies: conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Denver attorney David Lane, representing parents Richard and Mayumi Heene, says he wishes to avoid “the public spectacle and humiliation” of police arresting them in the presence of their children and that the couple will turn themselves into authorities when the time comes.

On Monday’s Today show, Lane insisted that so far only one side of the story has been heard.

In the meantime, Sheriff Alderden said protective services would look into whether the children should be removed from the home.

The sheriff issued a search warrant on the Heene home Saturday night and removed computers, video equipment and financial records.

The Heenes were locked out of their house during the search and spent the night with a neighbor. They returned at 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning and left an hour later.

[From People]

Gawker has a long exclusive interview with a friend of Richard Heene, who says that Heene initially planned the stunt to make his craft look like a real UFO which would hopefully fool news outlets. He wasn’t aware of any plans to get the children involved. Richard Heene is a total crackpot according to this guy, who says Heene believes the world will end in 2012 and that shape-shifting aliens live among us. The friend of Heene’s also says that the attic is one of those hidden doors in the ceiling without a staircase leading up to it, and in order to access the ladder little Falcon would have needed help.

For all you can say about these people, this has at least been interesting. I don’t think it’s as simple as we think though. I believe that the kid supposedly going missing was a hoax, but wasn’t initially part of the plan. The dad seemed genuinely mad in the home video of the craft getting loose and then the 911 call did sound real. Maybe they did think the kid was on there initially, found him shortly afterwards, and then realized that they could drag it out for the publicity. They did call the news before dialing 911, though, claiming that the TV station had a helicopter. It’s possible the dad is such an angry, unhinged person in general that he’s not faking it when he freaks out.

Poor Balloon Boy. First off, that’s what six-year-old Falcon Heene is going to be called for the rest of his life. From his college graduation to his wedding, people will always reference Balloon Boy. But really, that’s not the worst of it. The worst of it is that it seems Balloon Boy probably didn’t do anything wrong. It’s appearing more and more obvious that his scheming parents were behind the whole thing, and the poor kid is clearly wracked with guilt. While being interviewed on CNN, Falcon was asked by his father why he hid in the garage even when rescuers were calling for him. He responded, “You guys said we did this for the show.” His father Richard Heene responded “Oh man.” Since then the Heene family has been on both ABC and NBC to defend themselves, and when Falcon’s statement was brought up, each time the little boy became physically ill and threw up.

Clearly poor Falcon is guilt-ridden, something his scheming parents sure don’t seem to be bothered by. Not only were they on an episode of “Wife Swap” last year, but it turns out they’ve been shopping a reality show “all over town” for the last several months. That sounds like “the show” little Falcon was referring to.

A TLC official tells TMZ the Heene family approached the network “months ago” with a reality show idea, but the network passed.

TMZ has learned the Heene family has been pitching a reality show about the wacky family, as one TV source put it, “all over town.”

We’re told Richard Heene pitched a series to Reality Real, as well as RDF Productions. RDF produces “Wife Swap,” on which the family appeared back in March.

We’re also told the Heene’s have made the rounds at the networks, including TLC. Of course, TLC produced “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”

So is balloon boy the ultimate reality show pitch?

[From TMZ]

It’s sad that we’re so accustomed to ridiculous reality show schemes most people saw this coming. Everything is about reality TV, and it’s invaded our lives in this incredibly awful way. Instead of up-and-coming actors with lots of drive striking out for Hollywood, all these run-of-the-mill people are looking for sensational ways to make themselves rich and famous, and extend their 15 minutes to 15 years.

While you obviously don’t want to accuse someone of doing something as terrible as this for the publicity, given all the information that’s come out it would seem gullible to try to assume the best. These parents sound like whackos, plain and simple. Not only did they try to get attention – and a reality show – by worrying the country that their child was in danger or dead, but now they’re letting him suffer deep physical (and presumably emotional) consequences. If Falcon’s getting sick on NBC, what do you think he’s doing at home at four in the afternoon? Probably still sick. Considering how terribly upset he seems when the cameras are on, imagine what he’s going through the rest of the time. The Heenes have made not only their son sick, but the rest of us as well.

Update by Celebitchy: Eyes for Lies, a tested truth expert like the ones portrayed on the Fox series “Lie to Me,” believes that the family is telling the truth based on their demeanor in the 911 tape, in interviews and in the family home video taken right after the balloon accidentally launched. She says the father’s anger is genuine and that “I am surprised by the anger I see in his father Richard, and the fear I see in Richard’s wife, Mayumi. If they set this balloon off as a hoax, I wouldn’t expect to see this because they would be Emmy Award winning actors.” Eyes also says that Richard’s behavior on CNN does not indicate deception.

My theory on how it went down is that maybe they truly believed that the boy was in the balloon at first, but then they realized soon afterwards that he was safe in the garage. They saw how much publicity they were getting and decided to drag it out until the balloon landed so they could get more air time. That would explain why Falcon said “you told me it was for the show.” It’s possible they’re telling the truth, though, and that their history as fame seekers is counting against them. As much as the facts point to one thing, Eyes is usually dead on in her assessments and if she says this family seems to be telling the truth, maybe they are.