A U.S. District Court judge has sentenced the father of the so-called Balloon Boy to a combination of probation and jail time, for perpetuating the October hoax that sent Colorado law enforcement on a frantic search for his son.
The boy's mother received a probationary sentence and 20 days in jail.
Richard Heene, the father of six-year-old Falcon Heene, was sentenced to 90 days in jail, followed by four years' probation in a Larimer County court on Wednesday morning.
District Judge Stephen Schapanski said Heene will spend 30 days in jail, followed by 60 days work release that will allow him to pursue work as a construction contractor while he is serving his time.
The Colorado father will not start his sentence until next month so that he can spend Christmas with his children and wrap up his affairs.
He will make restitution payments that are still to be determined.
The judge said Heene is also "prohibited from receiving any financial benefit" stemming from the Oct. 15 incident in involving his son, which suggested Falcon was trapped in a homemade balloon that was floating over the Colorado plains.
Schapanski said he believed Falcon's father was remorseful, but also that he knew what the likely effect of his "Balloon Boy" hoax would be.
Heene did offer an apology to the court and he choked back tears as he read it to the judge: "I do want to reiterate that I'm very, very sorry."
Falcon's mother, Mayumi Heene, was sentenced immediately after her husband. She chose not to address the court.
In court, her lawyer argued that Falcon's mother did not have the same culpability in the crime as Richard Heene -- a position that the prosecutor agreed with. The judge agreed that her offence was less serious than her husband's, in part because she does not have a criminal record.
Schapanski said it is clear the Balloon Boy's mother "accepts responsibility" and he handed her a four-year probationary sentence as well as 20 days in jail. Mayumi Heene's sentence will involve work release.
Like her husband, she is also prohibited from profiting from the story involving her young son.
On Oct. 15, six-year-old Falcon Heene was believed to be in danger after his parents made frantic calls to 911, the news media and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Authorities chased the balloon for 80 kilometres, only to find out that the young boy was nowhere to be found.
The finding left Bob Heffernan, a lead investigator for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, with the painful duty of telling the boy's parents that police were unable to find him.
But as it turned out, Falcon had never been in the balloon. The hoax unraveled days later, when Falcon told a TV interviewer that his family "did this for a show."
"I wish I could make you realize the anguish I had when I went into that room," Heffernan said in a letter to Schapanski, dated Nov. 30, describing the moment when police realized Falcon was not in the balloon.
"To have the Heenes start the grieving process with me trying to comfort them and give them some hope. Then to find out later they were just acting."
Prior to sentencing, Heffernan said he wanted the judge to impose limits on how the Heene family can profit from the hoax -- something the judge ultimately agreed with.
"This would hopefully stop the Heenes from being able to exploit their criminal behavior or their children any more than they already have," Heffernan urged the judge in the same letter.
"All the while the Heenes were playing us all in hopes of making themselves more marketable."
Richard and Mayumi Heene arrived in court for their sentencing on Wednesday morning.
The couple previously pleaded guilty to charges that they carried out the October stunt in an attempt to promote a reality TV show.
The Larimer County District Attorney's Office previously pegged the cost of the search for Falcon Heene at US$46,000. That estimate includes the cost of sheriff's department overtime, expenditures from nearby law enforcement agencies, damages to the field where the craft landed and the involving of using two National Guard helicopters in the search.
The FAA has said the Heenes may also be fined US$11,000 for launching an unauthorized aircraft.
With files from The Associated Press
