11/12/2009

in

Mayumi and Richard Heene plead guilty to the crimes they had been charged with and prosecutors will allow them to serve probation sentences

TheCelebrityCafe.com Staff

Attorney David Lane, the lawyer of Balloon Boy father Richard Heene, has released a statement to announce that his client and his client's wife, Mayumi Heene, are expected to plead guilty on Thursday to the crimes they have been charged with. Richard Heene was charged with a felony for attempting to influence a public servant while Mayumi Heene had been charged with a misdemeanor for making a false report to authorities.  
  
Mayumi and Richard Heene are more commonly referred to as the Balloon Boy Parents after a bizarre October incident when Richard Heene infamously reported to authorities that their son had floated away in a helium balloon. The New York Daily News is reporting that prosecutors in the case agreed to allow the Balloon Boy Parents to serve probation sentences as a result of the guilty pleas.  
  
Legal expert Andrew Cohen, a CBS employee, provided an analysis of the guilty pleas, stating that it "makes sense for both sides, especially given the cost of a trial and the risk that the mother involved here would have been deported and separated from her children. So I'm not surprised at all that this ends with a whimper and not a bang."  
  
While Mayumi Heene would have been endangered by potential felony perjury charges that could have resulted in her deportation from the country, Richard Heene faced a maximum recommended charge of six years in prison.