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Investigator Wants Book Thrown At Richard Heene

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Dec 22, 2009 9:42 pm US/Mountain

Investigator Wants Book Thrown At Richard Heene

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) ― The parents of the so-called "Balloon Boy" will find out Wednesday if they are going to jail. That's when sentencing is to take place for Richard and Mayumi Heene.

CBS4 investigator Rick Sallinger obtained a letter from the Larimer County Sheriff's Department to the judge asking for the maximum sentence for the Richard Heene.

Heene faces up to 90 days and Mayumi faces up to 60 days, which the judge can deliver as part of the plea deal they received for probation.

When Heene pleaded guilty last month he knew he was running the risk of going to jail. He pleaded to a felony in a deal that would lessen the risk of his wife being deported. Now the Larimer County Sheriff's Department lead investigator on the case is asking for the judge to throw the book at Heene and give him the maximum 90 days.

Heene's attorney, David Lane, says his client's main interest is to protect his wife.

"What Richard wants to tell the court is, 'Whatever you do to Richard, you do to Richard, but Mayumi should not do one day in jail,'" Lane said.

In a letter to the judge lead sheriff's investigator Bob Heffernan wrote, "One of the worst jobs as law enforcement officers we are asked to perform, is the notifications to parents that one of their children have died."

Heffernan said the Heenes set up the hoax to make him do just that when the balloon landed without 6-year-old Falcon inside.

"I wish I could make you realize the anguish I had when I went into to that room," Heffernan wrote.

Attorney and legal analyst Larry Pozner believes jail time for the father is a strong possibility.

"People thought a child was in danger and now a judge is going to look down and say to a father, 'It's not just that you pulled a hoax, you implicated your family, you implicated your son,'" Pozner said.

The Heenes were recently spotted in New York City. The celebrity tracking Web site TMZ reported they were chauffeured and treated to dinner by ABC for purposes of an interview. That video also upset Heffernan, who wrote the judge asking that the Heenes be stopped from further exploiting their criminal behavior.

(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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