Sherri and Keith Papini.
Sherri Papini, the California mom who claimed that she’d been kidnapped while out jogging in 2016 but admitted last week her claim was a hoax, formally pleaded guilty Monday.
Papini, 39, entered guilty pleas via Zoom to one count each of lying to a federal officer and mail fraud, her attorney, William Portanova, confirms to PEOPLE. Her sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
Last week Portanova confirmed that Papini had signed a plea deal with federal prosecutors. The plea agreement mandates that Papini pay more than$300,000 in restitutionto various government entities.
Papini’s staged kidnapping cost the California Victim’s Compensation Board over $30,000 in therapy visits and an ambulance trip and cost the United States Social Security Administration more than $127,000, which she will be required to pay back. Papini will also have to pay $148,866 to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, the law enforcement agency that investigated the staged kidnapping, and $2,558 to the FBI.
Andrew Seng/The Sacramento Bee via AP
“I am kind of relieved that she finally decided to come clean,” Missy McArthur, the former mayor of Papini’s hometown of Redding, Calif., tells PEOPLE. “It is a good thing for people to own up when they mess up and take personal responsibility so hopefully, she will learn a lesson and never do that again.”
Suspect sketches.FBI
She was found wandering in a parking lot 22 days later — on Thanksgiving Day. Her family, including her children then ages 2 and 4, welcomed her back and the community of Redding, which had spent days searching for her, largely rallied around her.
But after investigating her purported kidnapping, the authorities found that Papini had fabricated the incident and had been hiding out with an ex-boyfriend in Southern California.
Sherri Papini.
After further questioning, the boyfriend said that he and Papini had communicated over prepaid phones and concocted a scheme to pick her up in Redding and drive her back to his two-bedroom apartment in Costa Mesa.
During her stay, Papini was “purposefully trying to lose weight,” chopped off her own hair and “created the injuries while staying with him, including hitting herself to create bruises and burning herself on her arms,” according to a federal complaint filed against her.
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“Ex-Boyfriend said he helped her create some of the injuries, although he never laid his hands directly on her; for example, she told him, ‘bank a puck off my leg,’ so [he] shot a puck off her leg, lightly,” the complaint states.
source: people.com
