SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Before Sherri Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison for admitting her 2016 kidnapping was a hoax, the Northern California mother of two delivered an emotional statement to Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb in a federal courtroom in Sacramento.
In court, Papini admitted she lied about the abduction and apologized to family and friends who supported her while her disappearance captured the national spotlight.
The following is the statement Papini read in court Monday:
"Your honor, I stand before you humbled by this court, truly honored and grateful you are allowing me to speak.
"I am so sorry to the many people who have suffered because of me — the people who sacrificed for the broken woman I was, the people who gave willingly to help me in a time that I so desperately needed help. I thank you all.
"I thank the government for allowing the opportunity for this plea agreement. I thank my attorney team for fighting for me. I thank the many people who are still willing to help me on my long road ahead. And I thank you, your honor.
"You’ve seen so much dishonor laid before you here in this room. People who are not willing to walk through the shame to say they are guilty. I am not one of them, your honor.
"I am guilty of lying. I am guilty of dishonor. I stand before you willing to accept. To repent and to concede. I trust in this court. I trust the officers handling my release and I trust in you, your honor, to see me, to hear me.
"What was done cannot be undone. It can never be erased. I am not choosing to stay frozen like I was in 2016. I am choosing to commit to healing the parts of myself that were so very broken.
"I am choosing to humbly accept responsibility.
"Thank you. Sincerely, thank you."
Papini’s sentence came as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors who recommended an eight-month prison sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Veronica Alegria and Shelley Weger wrote in court papers that “there needs to be just punishment for her conduct.”
Papini’s attorney, William Portanova, had argued for a one-month prison sentence, with seven more in home custody — the same as what federal probation officials had recommended.
Papini could have faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the false statements charge and a 20-year sentence and fine of $250,000 on the mail fraud count, but the plea agreement Portanova negotiated with prosecutors called for a much more lenient sentence.
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