Sheriff: TV Paid for Balloon Stunt

Backed off when judge ruled family couldn't profit from hoax

(NEWSER) - ABC News was just about to pay the family of "balloon boy" Jason Heene $10,000 for a video of their stunt and an interview before a judge ruled last month that the family couldn't profit from their hoax. "ABC pulled the story because it didn't want the scrutiny," a source told the New York Post . NBC has recently come under heat for "pay-for-play" perks to news sources. More»

Richard Heene says he pleaded guilty to help his wife

(NEWSER) - There's no easy way to break this: The balloon boy dad is back in the news, and he insists the hoax he admitted to perpetrating wasn't, in fact, a hoax. Richard Heene tells Larry King in an interview airing Friday that he genuinely thought his son Falcon was aboard the infamous contraption when it took flight. He says he pleaded guilty only to save his wife from being deported to Japan. The local sheriff says he's "shocked" by the interview. More»

What's worse, he can't parlay stunt into cash for 4 years

(NEWSER) - Richard Heene, the mastermind behind the Balloon Boy stunt, will be cooking up his schemes behind bars for 90 days after being sentenced today. After his sentence—a mixture of hard time and work release—is complete, he’ll serve four years of probation, ABC News reports. The lowest blow? During that time, the judge says, “Mr. Heene is in fact prohibited from receiving any form of financial benefit” for his actions. More»

Not surprisingly, Nadya Suleman and the Gosselins make the list

(NEWSER) - 2009 will always be the year we first met Octomom, Jon and Kate’s divorce played out in the tabloids, and David Hasselhoff ruined Thanksgiving. And those aren’t the only bad parents of the year—the New York Daily News remembers the worst:

• Richard and Mayumi Heene: Convinced the world son Falcon was trapped in a runaway balloon—and then made him and his siblings lie about it.
• Courtney Love: Ranted about daughter Frances Bean Cobain on Facebook after losing custody.

Sheriff finds no evidence of conspiracy in hoax

(NEWSER) - Despite rumors that balloon boy parents Richard and Mayumi Heene may have worked with others, possibly media outlets, to stage their runaway balloon stunt, they pulled it off on their own, say authorities. Police examined computers, video cameras, and tapes taken from the couple's Colorado home and found no evidence of co-conspirators, the AP reports. A judge will determine whether the Heenes must pay back the estimated $43,000 spent on the search for their never-really-missing son tomorrow. More»