Sherri Papini, California woman charged with faking her kidnapping, released from jail
Sherri Papini, a Northern California woman who was arrested last week for allegedly faking her own 2016 kidnapping and lying to federal agents, was released from jail on Tuesday.
A federal judge allowed Papini, 39, to be released after her family posted a $120,000 bond. Papini must undergo psychiatric treatment and surrender her passport as conditions of her release.
Wearing a gray hoodie and keeping her head down, Papini ran out the doors of the jail in Sacramento and, embraced by friends or family, dashed to a car past a throng of reporters and photographers shouting questions.
CBS Sacramento reports the sprint went across downtown Sacramento streets with family shielding her face as reporters tried to get some type of response from her. Not answering anyone, at one point, Papini could be heard sobbing as a family member got her inside an awaiting vehicle.
During a virtual detention hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremy D. Peterson had agreed with Papini's attorney that she wasn't a flight risk or a threat to the community.
She was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to federal agents about being kidnapped and defrauding the state's victim compensation board of $30,000.
In arguing against her release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Veronica Alegria said when FBI agents tried to arrest Papini last week, "she screamed 'no' and ran away from them and resisted arrest." Her attorney said Papini was running toward her children.
Papini, of Redding, was found on Thanksgiving Day in 2016 after three weeks of searching in California and several nearby states. Sheriff's detectives released grainy video of Papini just moments before she was found, showing her running past the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Yolo.
She had bindings on her body and injuries including a swollen nose and a "brand" on her right shoulder.
She told authorities at the time she was kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women, even providing descriptions to the FBI along with extensive details of her purported abduction. Sketches of the alleged captors were even released by the FBI.
Authorities said she was actually staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles away from her home in Orange County, in Southern California, and hurt herself to back up her false statements.
"When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and concern," U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement. "Ultimately, the investigation revealed that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted."
From <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sherri-papini-arrested-faked-2016-kidnapping-defrauded-california/>
Prosecutors and the Shasta County Sheriff's Office say Papini's abduction hoax cost Shasta County, state and federal taxpayers, crime victims and donors more than $200,000.
