Colo. man apologizes for role in expensive wild goose chase in '06
Posted 14h 29m ago

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A Boulder man has apologized for sending hundreds of volunteers on an expensive and dangerous search in Eldorado Canyon State Park for a friend who had run away to avoid returning to his Marine unit.

The search last August and September for Lance Hering, 21, took five days and cost $33,000.

Steve Powers, 21, his friend, was convicted of misdemeanor false reporting and ordered to write an apology. A deferred sentence for a prior felony attempted-burglary charge was revoked because of the new violation, meaning he will be a convicted felon for life.

He was also ordered to serve 200 hours of community service and pay the entire restitution bill to the Sheriff's Office.

"At the time, my No. 1 goal was that Lance not get killed, and from there I really don't know what to say," he said.
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Hering, a lance corporal Iraq veteran who was in a unit allegedly involved in the April 2005 shooting death of a 52-year-old Iraqi, was on leave from Camp Pendleton, Calif. He remains missing.

Powers later admitted dropping Hering off at a bus station in Denver hours before reporting him missing.

Their plan was for Powers to be accused of killing Hering and be convicted at trial. After Powers had been imprisoned for six months or so, Hering would reappear, having bought some time out of the service, the Boulder Daily Camera reported Saturday.

"In looking back now, God, doesn't it seem dumb?" Powers said.

Powers suggested Hering was afraid of soldiers from his unit — Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment — who were accused in the killing of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, Iraq. Powers believed they thought he may have seen something.

But Camp Pendleton spokesman 1st Lt. Esteban Vickers said Hering was never a suspect or witness in that case and was not even in the area when it occurred.

To stage a killing in Eldorado Canyon State Park, Powers and Hering put some of Hering's blood on a water bottle and Powers planted his fingerprints on it.

But Powers failed four lie detector tests. Deputies then found surveillance tape showing Hering getting on a bus in Denver.

"I was helping him," Powers said. "I knew what the cost was going to be, and I did it anyway." He told the newspaper he has no idea where Hering is.

The Marines have said they don't have the manpower to look for him but there is a federal arrest warrant out.

Ellie