Thread: Balloon boy's parents to plead guilty

In a statement released early this morning, Heene attorney David Lane says Mayumi will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor, with a stipulated sentence to probation.



Richard Heene, the boy's father, will plead guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant, with a stipulated sentence to probation, according to the statement.

Here's where the deportation part comes in:

In the statement, Lane said a felony conviction for Mayumi Heene would have meant that she, as a citizen of Japan, would have been deported.



Although Mayumi had confessed, according to sheriff's investigators, the law prevents her statements being used against her husband, Richard, which means he would have been acquitted.



The statement says it was "it was ultimately the threat of taking the children's mother from the family and deporting her to Japan which fueled this deal."

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...-deportation/1