Well, that was anticlimactic.
As expected, Balloon Boy hoaxsters Richard and Mayumi Heene each pleaded guilty this morning to charges stemming from their mesmerizing and ultimately sick-inducing Oct. 15 media circus.
Richard's arraignment took place first. After careful and deliberate questioning by the judge to ensure his plea was voluntary, Richard pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant.
Mayumi, too, got the third degree over whether she truly understood that with her guilty plea would come all manner of consequences, chief among them financial.
"Do you understand the finality of this?" Judge Stephan Schapanski asked. "You don't get to change your mind, you don't get to come back and say it was a bad decision, you just wanted to get it over with."
Mayumi, a Japanese national who may face deportation if convicted of a felony count, agreed. She entered a guilty plea for her misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities, but not before getting a little something in exchange...
Richard and Mayumi were allowed to remain free on a personal recognizance bond. But the judge modified the conditions today, allowing them to travel out of state. Richard's attorney said he would be heading to New York within the next week to seek employment opportunities; a trip to California is planned for shortly thereafter. (We smell a TV pitch.)
The Colorado couple was given seven days to make their way to the probation department for the requisite presenting investigation and report—something that is normally done immediately following arraignment, but which in this case was postponed due to the media crush at the courthouse.
Sentencing for both will take place Dec. 23.
(Originally published Nov. 13, 2009, at 7:22 a.m. PT)
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The Heenes aren't the first, nor will they be the last. There have been plenty of other celebrity Court Appearances on our watch.