Sherri Papini, the Northern California woman accused of faking her own kidnapping in 2016, has agreed to a plea deal in which she will admit to fabricating the entire plot, according to her attorney’s office.
“I am profoundly embarrassed by my behavior and truly sorry for the anguish I’ve caused my family, friends, and all the fine people who have suffered needlessly as a result of my narrative, as well as those who have worked so hard to help me,” Papini wrote in her statement. “I will work for the rest of my life to atone for my actions.”
As first reported by The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday, Papini, 39, issued a statement through her attorney, William Portanova.
Papini was reported missing by her husband in November 2016 after she went for a jog near her house in Shasta County, according to CNN. She was discovered alone on an interstate highway 140 miles from home three weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day.
She claimed she was kidnapped and branded by two ladies who held her captive in a closet. She detailed her kidnapping and torture by the alleged assailants, who she claimed wore masks, spoke Spanish, held her at gunpoint, and brandished her with a heated weapon.
According to court filings, Papini lived with an ex-boyfriend in Southern California for the three weeks she was allegedly gone, and earned over $30,000 in false victim assistance money as a result of the hoax, according to the Department of Justice.
Papini was charged with providing false statements to a federal law enforcement official and mail fraud, and prosecutors announced Tuesday that she agreed to plead guilty to one count of each. She could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.
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The sentence will be decided by the court. Papini’s plea date has yet to be determined.
“We’re going in a very different way with this case,” Portanova, a former federal prosecutor, told The Sacramento Bee. “Everything that has happened up to this point has come to an end today.”
According to Portanova’s office, Papini’s plea bargain has been delivered to prosecutors at the US Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
