Colorado balloon-boy saga inflates sheriff’s popularity

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — The sheriff at the center of the runaway balloon saga says he’s not enjoying the media spotlight, but that’s never stopped the John Wayne fan from using it to offer brash opinions on hot topics.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden once used his blog to label a nearby city “the imbecilic borough of Boulder” for being too secular for his taste. At a nationally televised news conference Oct. 18, he declared that much of what’s on TV is “garbage.”

Alderden, who has worked in law enforcement for 37 years, wasn’t well known outside his home county until Oct. 15, when the saga of a boy feared carried away on a balloon captivated a live television audience of millions. Since then, he’s been a frequent presence on TV, in newspapers and on the Internet.

At first, he told the world he believed Richard and Mayumi Heene when they said they feared their 6-year-old son was aboard the balloon. The boy was later found at the family’s Fort Collins home, where he said he’d been hiding because he was afraid he was in trouble.

Two days later, Alderden accused the Heenes of perpetrating a hoax for publicity and said he would recommend criminal charges. He said he had only pretended to believe the couple to gain their confidence while deputies investigated.

Since then, he’s received e-mails that praise him as a hero or denounce him as a bumbler. A Denver Post editorial suggested his public pretense about believing the Heenes will make residents more cynical about law enforcement.

But people who know Alderden say he’s a dedicated officer who has raised his department’s professionalism in this county of 290,000 residents.

“He’s no-nonsense” but has a sense of humor, said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, who served with Alderden on a state crime task force. “I would call him a likable guy.”

Alderden describes himself as a patriot. He’s a big fan of John Wayne and calls his blog “The Bull’s-eye: Straight Shooting From the Sheriff.”

When his son, 32-year-old John W. Alderden, served 10 days in the Larimer County jail over a traffic fine this year, the sheriff said he ordered his staff to treat his son like any other inmate.

“As a father, I am embarrassed and disappointed in him,” the sheriff told the Fort Collins Coloradoan.