FORT COLLINS, Colo., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The mother of Colorado's "Balloon Boy" contradicted her husband's claims about the hoax in police interviews, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported Saturday.
In taped interviews with Larimer County Sheriff's investigators obtained by the Coloradoan, Mayumi Heene is heard contradicting her husband Richard Heene's assertions the pair didn't knowingly perpetrate a hoax in which they claimed their 6-year-old son Falcon was trapped in a runaway helium balloon.
Both parents, who also have two other sons, pleaded guilty in November to lying to police about the stunt, which prosecutors say they staged to improve their chances of getting on a reality television show. Before he began his jail sentence, however, Richard Heene asserted to reporters he actually believed his son was in the balloon and only made the plea to save his wife from being deported to her native Japan.
But the Coloradoan reported Mayumi Heene tells sheriff's investigators in the interview, "Richard and I agreed to it, so it was mutual."
The newspaper said Richard Heene is serving a 30-day jail sentence, and Mayumi Heene will serve jail time later this year.
