DOES AN EGO DRIVEN, TIME AND RESOURCES WASTING, COSTLY, NATIONAL HOAX, DESERVE ONLY A PLEA BARGAIN DEAL ?????????.........

The Heene parents, those infamous self promoters of the purported, "balloon boy", are reportedly in the process of pulling off another stunt. This time it involves the penalty they will face for perpetrating their publicity hoax on the American people and fraudulently involving more than thirteen local, state, and federal agencies, in a needless wild goose chase, in search of their six year old, they knew to be hiding out at home. Despite their protestations at the time that they had done nothing wrong and their hiring of a very aggressive, Colorado defense attorney, news now breaks that they have agreed to a plea bargain and are likely to get only probation for their crimes. The father plans to plead guilty to a felony offense and the mother to a misdemeanor, in the hope that prosecutors and the judge will accept their pleas and grant them probation, not jail time or financial restitution. I feel strongly that if this plea bargain deal is exacted as their punishment, it will be a gross miscarriage of justice, as we should righteously define it. Why either of the parents can avoid imprisonment, or at a minimum, being required to repay what this nefarious episode cost the taxpayers is egregious. As Jay Leno commented on his prime time show three weeks ago, he believes they should do jail time. Not only as punishment for their deception, but because Americans are very susceptible to copycat crimes, and others are likely to emulate the balloon boy parents' antics. Another current example underscores the veracity of that statement. Take last week's despicable massacre at Fort Hood, Texas which killed thirteen persons and wounded twenty nine more. The very next day, a dismissed employee of an Orlando, Florida business, returned to his former work building and shot eight persons, an obvious, copycat crime. My deceased mother used to say, "You do those things, you get those things". I believe that proclamation should be applied in this matter. The Heene's selfishly decided to pull off this serious and wasteful hoax, now that must pay the price and that involves more than a soft plea bargain. And if probation is all they get, attached to the plea bargain and the probation needs to be an ironclad prohibition from them financially benefiting from their notoriety due to this occurrence. If I were handling this case, you would call me, a throw the book at them, judge or prosecutor........Troy David Powers