Balloon charges likely next week

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Authorities investigating the family accused of perpetrating the balloon boy hoax to promote a reality show said Monday they don’t expect to bring possible charges until at least next week.

Larimer County sheriff’s spokeswoman Eloise Campanella said that investigators don’t anticipate finishing their reports and presenting them to the district attorney’s office until next week. It will then be up to prosecutors to decide whether to file charges against Richard Heene or his wife, Mayumi.

The couple’s lawyer, David Lane, declined to say directly whether he believes the incident was a hoax but said the Heenes are innocent unless convicted. The family remained in seclusion Monday at their home.

Investigators also say they want to question an associate of his after e-mails surfaced showing the two had discussed a balloon hoax months ago as part of a public relations campaign for a reality show.

Robert Thomas of Denver claimed Heene had told him he was planning a media stunt to promote a proposed reality show. Thomas, a self-described researcher, sold his story to Gawker.com and provided the Web site with e-mail exchanges between him and Heene. Thomas said the show would feature Heene as a mad scientist who carries out various scientific experiments.

“This will be the most significant UFO-related news event to take place since the Roswell Crash of 1947, and the result will be a dramatic increase in local and national awareness about The Heene Family, our Reality Series, as well as the UFO Phenomenon in general,” according to a copy of the show’s proposal provided to the site by Thomas.

Gawker.com editor-in-chief Gabriel Snyder confirmed the New York-based Web site paid Thomas for the story, but declined to say how much.

Snyder said Thomas was planning to meet with investigators but Larimer County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kathy Messick wouldn’t comment on whether he had been interviewed.

Thomas, 25, said in his Gawker.com story that the plan he knew about did not involve Heene’s children.

The emergence of the e-mails is the latest twist in a story that played out live on national television on Thursday when a silver helium-filled balloon floated away from the Heenes’ home with 6-year-old Falcon believed to be aboard. But he was never in the balloon.

Some flights at Denver International Airport had to be changed to a different runway. The National Guard provided two helicopters in an attempt to rescue the child, costing several thousand dollars.

When the balloon landed without the boy, officials thought he had fallen out and began the search for his body.

It’s also possible that Heene could face federal charges because he called the Federal Aviation Administration to report his son missing in the balloon. Those charges could include lying to the federal government.

Sheriff Jim Alderden announced Sunday that he’s seeking charges, including felonies, against Richard and Mayumi Heene. Alderden said the stunt two weeks in the planning was a marketing ploy by the Heenes, who met in acting school in Hollywood and have twice appeared on ABC’s reality show “Wife Swap.”

Alderden said documents show that a media outlet has agreed to pay money to the Heenes with regard to the balloon incident. Alderden didn’t name the media outlet but said it was a show that blurs “the line between entertainment and news.”

It wasn’t clear whether the deal was signed before or after the alleged hoax, or whether the media outlet was a possible conspirator.

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