Miscellaneous

Year of the Hoax

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Well it looks like 2009 was (and still may be, for a few more days) the Year of the Hoax. To name but a few --

• That JFK photo was a fake! Thank you, TMZ, for making our afternoon a little more interesting. First, you're all Leader of the free world liked boating with nekkid women! Then, moments later, you're all Not so much! While we do not doubt that JFK perhaps would have *liked* to be the guy in this photo, we now know he was not. See TMZ.com Should Explain JFK Photo Hoax -- More to Story, SFGate (December 28, 2009). Teaching moment: think about how this could shape jurors' view of experts in coming months.


• We don't really know who this guy is, but we did hear his apartment was ransacked. Then (again, within hours!) we heard from his lawyer that it was a hoax. Who can say? Who wants to?


• The parent of all 2009 hoaxes has got to be the Balloon Boy's dad. While we don't doubt that a small child could jump into the family hot air balloon and de-sandbag it, hurtling himself into the air, it just didn't happen that way. The FAA is seeking the maximum $11,000 fine for Richard Heene. Both parental Heenes also received 90-day sentences plus fines, probation, restitution, etc.


• A (literally) dy-no-mite elf was caught by mall cops in Georgia. The report we link to notes He was not part of the mall's Christmas staff.


• A hoaxy mom got early release for Christmas. Bonnie Sweeten will be put under house arrest after serving 6 months of a 9-24-month sentence in Pennsylvania for falsely claiming that two black men (it's always two black men! Hoaxsters, get a better story!) abducted her and her daughter at Disney World. In fact, it was the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on December 28, 2009 (boomark / email).