Prosecutors have recommended an eight-month sentence for Sherri Papini, the California woman who pleaded guilty to faking her own 2016 kidnapping.
Federal prosecutors suggested Papini should serve one month in custody and seven months under home detention, according to an amended sentencing memorandum filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said that an eight-month sentence, though on the low end of sentencing guidelines, is consistent with Papini’s plea agreement and “fully and fairly accounts for the totality of Papini’s conduct and the relevant sentencing factors, and is sufficient but not greater than necessary to satisfy the sentencing purposes.”
“A lesser sentence, such as the one month of imprisonment recommended by probation or home detention in lieu of incarceration, is not sufficient to achieve the purposes of sentencing,” prosecutors said.
Papini in April pleaded guilty to “making materially false statements to FBI agents about the circumstances of her disappearance and committing mail fraud based on her being a kidnapping victim,” U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said at the time. The 39-year-old was ordered to pay over $300,000 in restitution to the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.
Papini’s disappearance in early November 2016 sparked a three-week search. She was found on Thanksgiving Day with various injuries that included a swollen nose and “brand” on her right shoulder.
But according to authorities, she had actually been staying with a former boyfriend some 600 miles away from her home in Orange County, California. They allege that Papini inflicted the injuries on herself to try to back up her false kidnapping story.
Prosecutors said even after she was found she “took her hoax even farther” by applying for disability and victims benefits until she was arrested. “These additional fraudulent acts suggest that Papini was not, as her therapist opines, merely coping with past abuse, but calculating to create additional benefits from her crimes,” prosecutors said.
“Papini’s actions had real negative consequences for the community and other victims. There needs to be just punishment for her conduct,” prosecutors added.
Prosecutors also recommended three years of supervised release after served time.
