Sherri Papini ordered to remain in jail on fake kidnapping charges
Sherri Papini, the California mother accused of faking her own kidnapping while she spent 22 days with an ex-boyfriend in 2016, appeared in court via Zoom for the first time Friday and was ordered to remain in Sacramento County Jail until at least Tuesday afternoon.
Papini, 39, did not speak during her brief arraignment hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremy Peterson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
She faces charges of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and mail fraud. The maximum prison sentence is five years for the first charge and 20 years for the second. Each charge carries a maximum financial penalty of $250,000 and Peterson said she could also be required to pay restitution.
Through her attorney Michael Borges, Papini complained that the jail is not providing food she can eat.
“She has not been able to eat since she was detained yesterday morning,” Borges said, other than an apple.
CALIFORNIA WOMAN HAD A SENSATIONAL KIDNAPPING TALE IN 2016: DISAPPEARANCE MADE HEADLINES:New charges say she made it up.
Peterson directed him to take the matter up with the jail.
Borges also argued for Papini’s release on her own recognizance, but prosecutor Veronica Alegría countered that the allegations against Papini show she is a flight risk.
“The government believes there are no conditions that could reasonably assure the court she would appear,” Alegría said.
In a 55-page criminal complaint and affidavit filed Thursday, federal prosecutors presented a detailed account of the five-year investigation into Papini’s mystifying disappearance and sudden return on Thanksgiving Day in 2016.
Papini, then 34, had gone for a jog near her Mountain Gate home and never showed up to pick up her two children from daycare. Her husband, Keith, used the “Find My Phone” app to locate her phone and earbuds, tangled with wisps of her long blonde hair, on a nearby roadside.
‘APPALLED’:Papini’s family reacts following her arrest, charges she faked kidnapping
For the next 22 days, her disappearance captured international headlines. Papini was dubbed a “supermom” and a self-declared expert on kidnappings led an effort to raise ransom money for her and find and negotiate with her abductors. The community was transfixed and terrified that a woman had been abducted in broad daylight.
All of that, prosecutors alleged in the criminal complaint, was a fabrication. In fact, the complaint says, Papini revived an old relationship and had been secretly communicating with an ex-boyfriend for nearly a year.
When she turned back up, beaten, branded and bound on the side of Interstate 5 near Sacramento, prosecutors say, it was the result of her own planning. They say she voluntarily stayed with the ex-boyfriend and enlisted his help in branding and injuring herself.
Papini’s claim to authorities that she had been taken at gunpoint and held and abused by two “Hispanic women” whose faces were always covered by masks launched a years-long search. It led to multiple tips from the community about “suspicious” Latina women, prosecutors said.
They allege Papini also applied for and received money from the California Victim’s Compensation Board for victim assistance money based on her kidnapping story. From 2017 through 2021, Papini collected approximately 35 payments totaling over $30,000, including for visits to her therapist and for the ambulance that transported her to the hospital after her return, the news release said.
In a statement provided to the Record Searchlight of the USA TODAY Network through publicist Chris Thomas, the Papini family blasted law enforcement for the way her arrest and its announcement was conducted Thursday. The statement did not explicitly deny the allegations, but said, “We are confused by several aspects of the charges and hope to get clarification in the coming days.”
The family statement also accused law enforcement officials of behaving unprofessionally and trying to pit Keith and Sherri Papini against each other. Thomas did not respond to a request to specify which members of the family he represents.
Peterson set a detention hearing for 2 p.m. Tuesday and a preliminary hearing for 2 p.m. March 18.
Silas Lyons is executive editor for USA TODAY Network newsrooms in Northern California and Nevada.
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