Sherri Papini made national headlines in 2016 when she was allegedly abducted. What followed was a trail of lies implicating two unidentified “Hispanic women” after a 22-day search for Papini. After a lengthy trial, she is sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking her kidnapping.
She not only fabricated her kidnapping but targeted the Latine community with her claims. By crying wolf about “two Hispanic women” kidnapping her at gunpoint in 2016, Papini fed into the fever pitch of hate and terror surrounding the Latine community.
The defense asked for a lenient sentence of 8 months, with seven months spent in supervised home confinement. Prosecutors sought eight months in prison. Yet, Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb handed down an 18-month sentence to deter others from faking kidnappings and falsifying claims.
“Obviously, the court did what it thought was right, and frankly, it’s difficult to argue with the justice of the sentence,” defense attorney William Portanova said, according to NPR. “I’m not really surprised because I understand the court’s analysis. … To the extent the judge wanted to underline the wrongness of her actions and tattoo it further on her soul, he accomplished that for sure.”
To this day, Sherri Papini has not offered a rational explanation for why she faked her kidnapping and gave detailed descriptions of the “kidnappers” so that police could create sketches for a search that ensued after her discovery on the side of the road.
Papini is also responsible for paying back $300,000 in restitution.