Page 3 - 201001 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2010

January 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 02/02/2010 8:33 AM Page 3 ‘Balloon Boy’ Mom Disproves Dad 3 'Balloon Boy' mom disproves husbands claims By Nate Taylor and Trevor Hughes, USA family was told by production company RDF But then investigators told Heene he had TODAY Media that "if you guys get in the news or get failed the lie detector test and that his wife was more like a popularity sort of, we are able to sell confessing in another room. They showed him a Despite her husband's claims to the you guys." picture of her talking to Heffernan. contrary, "Balloon Boy" mom Mayumi Heene RDF Media is the same company that "Your wife is here. She just got done repeatedly confessed that the family staged the worked with the Heene family when they taking a polygraph. She failed the polygraph. hoax to boost their prospects in reality TV. appeared on the show Wife Swap in 2008. You failed the polygraph," Undersheriff Ern Video recordings of the interviews Mayumi Heene stressed to Heffernan that RDF Hudson told Richard Heene. "Your wife has conducted by the Larimer County Sheriff's did not come up with the idea to report to already told us the truth. She's told us the whole Office with Mayumi Heene disprove the claims authorities that Falcon was missing and aboard story about this case." made by her husband Richard during his media a balloon. As Heene continued to deny that he was blitz before he began serving his 30-day jail Before reporting to jail Jan. 11, Heene lying, Hudson continued to press him, telling sentence. said he truly believed Falcon was inside the Heene that telling the truth now would help. The videos, obtained by the Coloradoan balloon and that he pleaded guilty only to "It's fruitless for you to continue to deny on Friday through the Larimer County District appease authorities and save his wife from it," Hudson said. "We know that this incident Attorney's Office, show Mayumi Heene telling being deported to Japan. didn't happen the way you reported it." investigator Bob Heffernan that she and her Richard Heene told The Associated Heene, who repeatedly complained husband decided to report their 6-year-old son Press before he went to jail that his wife about having low blood sugar during the Falcon was aboard a UFO-shaped helium misunderstood the meaning of the word "hoax" questioning, at one point hangs his head over balloon. when she purportedly confessed. the side of the chair arm and yawns repeatedly. "Richard and I agreed to it, so it was "My wife's first language is Japanese, He told investigators he had little sleep the night mutual," Mayumi Heene told Heffernan after not English," Heene said. "My wife came home before, and that he was diabetic. she was told she failed a lie detector test she in tears wondering what she might have said. Hudson and Heene then discussed willingly took. She opened this Japanese-to-English dictionary, Heene's blood sugar level, and Hudson, who Both Richard and Mayumi Heene and she walks up to me crying her head off, and said he also is diabetic, chided Heene. pleaded guilty in November to lying to she says to me, 'I thought hoax meant an "You're more than OK on your blood authorities in connection with the Oct. 15 exhibition.'" sugar," Hudson said. "This is not going to go incident. Mayumi Heene received a lesser During her interview with Heffernan, away." (Continued on Page 4) sentence in part because she confessed and Mayumi Heene told him she has a bachelor's cooperated, prosecutors said. degree in English literature from a Japanese The balloon's flight and crash landing college. captivated viewers across the globe for about Mayumi Heene confessed largely three hours as the public feared Falcon was through yes or no answers to most questions aboard the craft. Falcon eventually emerged from Heffernan. During the roughly four-hour from a hiding place in the family's garage. interrogation, Heffernan frequently rephrases Under questioning Mayumi Heene said she the same questions inquiring about the Heenes' knew Falcon was hiding somewhere in the guilt and Mayumi Heene repeatedly confesses. home. During his polygraph test and At another point in the interview she subsequent interrogation, Richard Heene told Heffernan, "Initially, we wanted to make it maintained his innocence or stonewalled a Monday, but didn't get (the balloon) finished. investigators who urged him to confess. He The kids were out of school so we thought that gave investigators the same story he initially was perfect." told them and the media: that he believed She also told Heffernan about financial Falcon had floated away in the balloon. motivations to try and gain a more marketable "I thought 'Oh my God he's in it,'" image. Heene said. "We tried working so hard to make Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden money to survive. It's a shame to come up with appears several times in the recordings, refers to this idea. This was something that could take reporters as (expletive) and says that if Heene me, take us to the point we wanted to be at." passes the lie-detector test, it would give him Mayumi Heene told Heffernan the "control" instead of the media.