A Northern California woman has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and lying to the FBI.
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“I feel very sad,” she said tearfully when Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb asked her how she was feeling.“Did you lie to government agents when you told them you were kidnapped?” Shubb continued.Papini agreed to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors reached last week and is scheduled to be sentenced July 11.
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. Papini said Monday that she has been receiving psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder ever since her return — more than $30,000 worth of treatment for which she billed a state victim compensation fund and which is now part of her restitution.
She may have expected that the kidnapping hoax would bring her “fame and fortune,” said Dr. Ian Lamoureux, a forensic psychiatrist and frequent expert witness who teaches at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. Lamoureux, who specializes in complicated criminal and civil cases, said manufacturing a crisis may be a way for those with fragile egos and poor coping skills to seek to prevent the bad outcome from happening.