Balloon Boy Law and Order Conspiracy

Nutty Professor’s Family Could End Up As Episode Of Cop Show

What's new: Public opinion may be turning against authorities and others who bought into hoax

By ROBERT WELLER

Storm chaser and wife swapper Richard Heene has lawyered up, and Denver "super lawyer" David Lane is vowing to make the sheriff prove his hoax case against the eccentric balloon boy family.

Meanwhile, the tide of public opinion, might be turning from lynching the family to going after those who bought into their alleged hoax. Blogs were full of much more serious ones. Just for a moment, how about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Their lawyer planned to cut lawmen, who admitted the kid might have been on a swing in a nearby park for all they knew, no slack. I can assure he was not visible in Google Earth Street View ... I checked.

“If they step over any lines, it is my job to slap them down. I have no idea what so-called evidence they have,” the lawyer told Good Morning America. Lane, who has handled high profile cases and is listed on SuperLawyer.com, said they took a lie detector test but the sheriff hasn’t told him the results.

Prosecutors must provide defendants the anticipated evidence against them before trial. They hadn't scheduled a meeting with investigators by noon Monday.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden wasn't waiting to fire back to combat the publicity machine of the Heene family on the story that wouldn't die.

“He’s not the Nutty Professor. He may be nutty, but he’s not a professor,” said the sheriff. Alderden said Heene had only attended high school. He seemed to contradict himself, however, by saying Heene and his Japanese-born wife, Mayumi, had met when they attended acting school in Los Angeles together.

As each day passed since the Thursday non-flight of Heene’s six-year-old son, Falcon, it seemed that fewer people really believed the small boy was in the flying saucer-like mylar ballon when it launched and headed south towards Denver from Fort Collins.

By the time it reaches court Lane might be able to argue that it really wasn’t a big deal because Everybody knew the 2 1/2-hour event was a publicity stunt designed to promote a new reality show.

The family has had considerable experience with such programs, having appeared several times on Wife Swap.

One certain way to make sure the ratings continue would be to publicly arrest the family _ at least the parents. Lane says he has an agreement for the family to turn themselves into his office. He also said a perp walk would amount to child abuse.

It may have a life of its own as numerous videos, including songs, and vox pop interviews have appeared on YouTube and elsewhere. Google and Twitter were bombarded with questions and comments.

This could deter plans for any public arrest, which on the other hand might increase the likelihood of the villagers storming the castle.

Those of a certain political persuasion would disparage news reports that the balloon boy saga is over, noting that Sarah Palin is still being widely written about.