Denver Area will be Long Remembered for Hoax

If you watched as I did, with bated breath from my downtown Denver hotel room near 16th street mall - whatever that means - as that silver balloon floated and cart wheeled like a ballerina over the northern plains near Denver a week or so ago, you know what a strange story this has turned out to be! Even after is was found that little six-year-old Falcon Heene was not on the balloon and - even after I heard that he had said they "did it for a show," I still didn’t believe the parents cooked the whole thing up for publicity. I still didn’t believe it after I heard that they had been on that cheesy wife-swap show - twice!

Talk about naive! I just couldn’t imagine anyone could have used his or her (in this case his AND her) children that way. I still thought the little guy was just confused by all the cameras. It wasn’t until I heard that Mayumi Heene had admitted that they had cooked the plan up two weeks before the "big show" that it sank in that these two did indeed use their children as little publicity stunts.

Now Larimer County Department of Social Services is investigating the safety of the children in the care of these limelight-hungry parents. And criminal charges could soon be filed against the Heenes. The District Attorney’s office is still putting it all together as I’m sure they want everything to be just right since this will continue to be a big story. I knew as I watched it from downtown Denver Hotel room that this would be a bizarre story for the ages, in fact.

The Heenes’ defense attorney is frustrated by what he says are unprecedented leaks coming out. "All I can speak about is my situation, but I've been doing this for thirty years, and I've never seen an affidavit in support of a warrant released to the public before an arrest is made. And I've never seen a sheriff release confidential information in violation of the law about an ongoing child-abuse investigation. That's certainly not going to help the DAs with their case."