“She kidnapped herself.” A woman's infernal plan to meet her ex-boyfriend
A mother of two in Northern California was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for faking her kidnapping just so she could get back to her ex, prompting an extensive three-week search before she reappeared.
Sherry Babini, 40, pleaded guilty to planning the kidnapping and lying to the FBI about it.
As part of a plea bargain where she has to pay more than $300,000 in compensation and spend 18 months in prison.
The judge said he took into account the seriousness of the crime, particularly because of the "huge number of people affected", among them the police officers who searched for her, the community who believed and sympathized with her, and those who lived in fear because of her fake story of her abduction by two Hispanic women, and the Latin community that was wrongly viewed with suspicion.
Defense attorney William Portanova said the court ruling was fair, adding to NPR radio that his client "never provided a rational explanation for her behavior, which included months of careful planning before disappearing and temporarily abandoning her children," noting that her actions stunned "even mental health experts." Independents who said her condition did not fit into any typical diagnosis.”
The attorney expressed his opinion that the defendant was "pursuing an irrational fantasy" when she fled to her ex-boyfriend in Southern California, about 600 miles south of her home in Redding, only to be dropped off at a highway point 150 miles from her home after she said she wanted to return. Home.
Passers-by found Babini with ties on her body, a swollen nose, an indistinct "brand" on her right shoulder, bruises and rashes all over her body, tie marks on her wrist and ankles, and burns on her left forearm, and it later emerged that all the injuries were spontaneous And it was designed to prove its story.
After her arrest, Babini received more than $30,000 in psychiatric care for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
As part of the plea agreement, she agreed to reimburse law enforcement agencies with more than $150,000 in costs of searching for her and her missing captors, and reimburse her for the $128,000 she has received in disability payments since her return.
But the prosecution's lawyer said it was unlikely she would be able to repay the money "unless you win the lottery".
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