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Sherri Papini, accused of faking her own kidnapping, leaves jail after posting bail
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Sherri Papini, who was arrested last week for allegedly faking her own 2016 kidnapping and lying to federal agents, could be released after her family posted a $120,000 bond. She left jail in Sacramento, running past a throng of photographers and reporters.
REDDING, Calif. - The husband of Sherri Papini reportedly filed for divorce just days after she pleaded guilty to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI about it.
According to the Sacramento Bee, online records in Shasta County Superior Court indicate that Keith Papini filed for the "dissolution with minor children" on Wednesday.
Keith Papini appeared to support his wife over the years, even as she maintained that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women in Redding in November 2016.
Sherri Papini brought an end to the six-year saga after she confessed to faking her abduction, which had set off a massive three-week search. She resurfaced in Yolo County on Thanksgiving Day in 2016.
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Sherri Papini surveillance video
Yolo County Sheriff Department releases video in Sherri Papini kidnapping case
Investigators later learned that she had actually been staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles away in Orange County. Three weeks later, he dropped her off along Interstate 5, nearly 150 miles from her home.
She had bindings on her body and self-inflicted injuries including a swollen nose and blurred "brand" on her right shoulder. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm.
She pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court to mail fraud and making false statements related to the kidnapping hoax.
During Monday's half-hour court hearing, Sherri Papini offered no explanation for staging the whole ordeal.
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Video shows Papini minutes before she was located in 2016
Surveillance video from 2016 shows Sherri Papini minutes before she was found on the side of a road on Thanksgiving day after disappearing for 22 days.
"I feel very sad," she said tearfully when Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb asked her how she was feeling.
"Were you kidnapped?" he asked her later in the hearing.
"No, Your Honor," she replied.
She is scheduled to be sentenced July 11.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing range, estimated to be between eight and 14 months in custody, down from the maximum 25 years for the two charges.