David Lane adds wild card to Heenes’ bet on balloon boy notoriety
Denver civil rights attorney David Lane, right, with client Ward Churchill in court last April. (Daily Camera photo)
If this were a game of Texas hold ‘em, the Heene family would have just gone all in.
Now that the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office has announced it will seek misdemeanor and felony charges, Richard and Mayumi Heene have hired Denver civil rights and defense lawyer David Lane to be their attorney and spokesman.
Lane didn’t stay out of the limelight for long. His most recent high-profile client was former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill. Lane is an effective advocate and master of the media, which these days seems to be manipulated every which way they turn. Lane also seems to gravitate toward issues and clients who attract the most attention.
The Heenes certainly fit the profile. If they’re arrested and charged, don’t be surprised if the Fort Collins couple doesn’t keep their three boys shut up in the house – as if they could. They’ll be out and about on Sunday mornings, merrily shopping and always on the lookout for a television camera.
In this hand of poker, the winner collects the most face time on television and the Internet. But while the attention is satisfying, the Heenes must think the ultimate jackpot is the lucrative book deal or movie rights or reality TV series. They’re after the big money, and they’re willing to gamble not only with their individual freedom and finances, but also with the emotional future of their young children.
Criminal charges are being considered, and if convicted the Heenes could face hard time and hefty fines, possibly as high as six years in prison and $500,000. In their calculation, that might be a good bet. Maybe they could turn the video camera on for the weepy scene where child protective services escorts their three boys to foster homes. Somebody would pay for that on the Internet.
The Heenes appear to be contradicting a trend that has developed over the past couple of years, particularly in politics. Cover-ups don’t work, remember? If you get caught, the American people will be forgiving if you step in front of the cameras and apologize. Sincerity is in the eye and ear of the viewer.
There’s still time for the Heenes to come to their senses. All the microphones and cameras would be pointed in their direction to hear the mea culpas. Maybe then they wouldn’t lose all the respect of their friends and neighbors. And maybe also the various authorities, agencies, farmers and insurance companies would let them come up with a payment plan on the restitution.
It’s time for the dealer to make the flop, and the Heenes don’t have a winning hand.
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“No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” – Lily Tomlin
In a moment of madness the Heenes let the balloon go up, as so many people craving for publicity – well aren’t these people the nobodies?
However bad the hoax – it is sheer hypocrisy that Americans are called for six years in jail.
Total madness, but isn’t that why according to Felon there are twenty million Americans doing time?
Good article, Steve.
Don’t know why it only attracted pure looney tunes. Me, excepted of course.
Thank you, Gene.
I think the first comment implying too much cynicism is probably right on.
it is because common man is tired of being told fake news. we have a hunger for good news that is facts. common man knows how to get the truth and get reason but the news man does not learn how to find the true facts. more common man will show anger as they have seen the lying news that cheny has to give.
art
Art,
Who was your stand-in last week? The guy that capitalized each sentence. Did someone steal your identity again?
geneo,
How is it you always ask me abou my id. Oh how you do not read the capitol letters. And their is no stealed identity gene. Xamine your lied facts to see true news. Let your fake cheny news go away. In time you will see more of the facts. Each day perhaps you will get better. Since you need to learn more of the fcts it should be big help to you.
art
Top White House Official Says Obama Team ‘Controlled’ Media Coverage During Campaign.
Please see that this is obama taking care of the cheny media. And he sees that they need to print the fact news. Really good to see those cheny men be told what is not lies. Other news still need to be show the good facts. Daily news places have been sayign bad thigns about obama that needs to be made true facts. You can blame medias for the not true news that so many people beleive.
art
Good article, Steve.
My 15-year-old, asked for a comment after the Sheriff’s press conference on Sunday, said it simply: People Suck.
She and I both agreed, however, after discussion, that it’s better to focus on the millions of people who were praying for the safety of this little boy, and the rescuers, who at one point were trying to decide whether they could possibly lower someone down on a rope from a helicopter to rescue the boy.
You can either focus on the people who flew the planes into the World Trade Center, or the firefighters who walked into that lobby and wrote their Social Security numbers on their arms with permanent markers, because they knew that likely today was the day they would die. The only question then for them was how many people they could save before they did.
Here’s some good news for you Art.
The quote from the Top White House Official you threw out above, is from an AbamaButtWoman who idolizes a leader who murdered 35 to 70 million people of color.
You might want to try and understand the people you are supporting.
geneo,
Oh it is clear who the support is for. But not all peoples see the true support. And then those false support people believe wrong things. MAny folks see thew wrong media. So there are blind people that beleive fake news. Unless the medias are controlled they will not tell the true facts. Can not people see what is going on with medias. Known news medias blame the common man like josh. So many cheny men act as all are like josh.
art
Art,
Regarding your warped sense of what is media and bias and whatever kooky alignments you have with the ProvdaAbamaNation, this is what it sounds like when an intelligent man talks about the subject. I assume you have been even nuttier than normal because of the ProvdaAbamaNation push to eliminate free press in this country. This is Charles Krauthammer’s Take From the Fox News All-Stars. I. e. as in FOX NEWS CHANNEL. FOX NEWS CHANNEL. FOX NEWS CHANNEL. FOX NEWS CHANNEL. . . get it idiot. !! Anyway, as follows;
On the Obama administration insisting that Fox is not a news organization:
Look, the great sin of Fox News is it broke the monopoly of the liberal media.
That’s the reason why it is so wildly successful. I once said years ago that the genius of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch is to have discovered a niche audience of American broadcast news, namely, half of the American people.
And the other consequence is that it angers the Obama administration, which is used to, particularly after last year, wall-to-wall adulation.
I mean, this is almost comical if you look at the lineup. On the one hand, in the tank are NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, PBS, CNN and MSNBC. Some of these like MSNBC are so in the tank they need scuba gear. Some of them occasionally emerge for a breath of air, but only occasionally.
And Fox stands up and refuses to bend a knee, and that’s what they can’t stand.
Look, CNN was patted on the head by the Obama administration as objective. CNN is an organization that a few weeks ago had a fact-checking on a “Saturday Night Live” skit that was mildly critical of Obama, but did no fact checking on wildly, grotesquely, libelous racist statements allegedly made by Rush Limbaugh which were not made by Rush Limbaugh.
…That’s not a matter of sloppiness. That’s a matter of ideology.