Sherri Papini, woman who faked kidnapping, faces ex-husband in court — Transcript

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1. 0:01Are you hoping to get custody back of
2. 0:03your children? This California
3. 0:05courtroom, the center of a true crime
4. 0:07saga that continues to captivate the
5. 0:09nation. A dramatic abduction turned
6. 0:12bizarre hoax.
7. 0:15Sherry Pini, the mother of two who faked
8. 0:17her own violent kidnapping back in 2016,
9. 0:20now asking for joint legal and physical
10. 0:23custody of her two children. We're still
11. 0:25talking about this case because of the
12. 0:27children in this custody battle
13. 0:28involved. begging the question, when
14. 0:31does a parent get their custodial rights
15. 0:33back after such a lie? Sherry, who
16. 0:35served 10 months in prison, saying she
17. 0:38is a changed woman. Do you swear or
18. 0:40confirm that the testimony Sherry's
19. 0:42ex-husband Keith Papini, who currently
20. 0:44has sole custody of their 10 and
21. 0:4612year-old kids, disagrees. He was the
22. 0:49first to take the stand. My position
23. 0:51today is that she should not be alone
24. 0:54with the children. She
25. 0:58harmed her own body to fake a kidnap.
26. 1:02Keith making shocking new allegations
27. 1:04about Sherry as a mom. My daughter
28. 1:06informed me that
29. 1:09Sherry was having her smell rubbing
30. 1:11alcohol
31. 1:13on a daily basis. I found out more
32. 1:16things than Sherry had been doing to
33. 1:19either create some sort of sickness so
34. 1:22that she could take them to the doctor.
35. 1:24Sherry's lawyer arguing that child
36. 1:26services investigated these claims and
37. 1:28could not prove them. She's also
38. 1:30criticized Keith as a father. In a June
39. 1:332024 court filing, Sherry says, "Kith's
40. 1:36actions are self- serving and to the
41. 1:38detriment of our children. While my
42. 1:40actions are selfless and for the benefit
43. 1:42of our children, pointing to media
44. 1:44appearances, including last year's Hulu
45. 1:47documentary, Perfect Wife: The
46. 1:49Mysterious Disappearance of Sher Pini.
47. 1:52kiss for the camera with sunflower
48. 1:53seeds.
49. 1:55Today's hearing just the latest twist in
50. 1:57a case that has been likened to a real
51. 1:59life version of Gone Girl. The case
52. 2:01against Sherry Pipini was fascinating
53. 2:02because it had a missing woman, a race
54. 2:05against time, children involved, and it
55. 2:07had so many elements just just rolled
56. 2:09into one that made it mustwatch TV. The
57. 2:12saga began back in 2016 when 34year-old
58. 2:15Sher Pini went out for a jog and didn't
59. 2:18return home.
60. 2:21911. What is your Um, so, uh, I just got
61. 2:25home from work and, uh, my wife wasn't
62. 2:27there, which is unusual.
63. 2:30In total, 22 days pass with no sign of
64. 2:33Sherry, but then on Thanksgiving morning
65. 2:362016, a trucker finds a woman in
66. 2:38distress on the side of the road. 911
67. 2:41emergency. What are you reporting? Hi, I
68. 2:44have an emergency. There's a lady on the
69. 2:46side of the road needing help. Her name
70. 2:49is Sher Panini.
71. 2:51Can I talk to her here?
72. 2:57Please, please, Sherry, I need you to
73. 3:00listen to me.
74. 3:02Listen to me.
75. 3:05Do you know where you are? No.
76. 3:08No. I've been in the car. She claimed
77. 3:12she'd been kidnapped by two Hispanic
78. 3:14women. The horror Sherry tells
79. 3:16authorities that she lived through is
80. 3:18written all over her body. Bruises, her
81. 3:21hair chopped off. Perhaps most
82. 3:23harrowing, branding marks on Sherry's
83. 3:26back which spelled out the word exodus.
84. 3:29Like a py.
85. 3:33It hurt so bad. Rumors that circulated
86. 3:36that my colleague Matt Gutman has spoken
87. 3:39to Keith Pini several times. The first
88. 3:42back in 2016, shortly after Sherry
89. 3:44returned home. She literally lived
90. 3:47through
91. 3:49hell.
92. 3:50The things she told me that she did
93. 3:54acting like she was tucking in her kids
94. 3:56and
95. 4:00she's so strong. But not long after,
96. 4:03Sher Pini's story begins to unravel.
97. 4:05From inconsistencies in what she said
98. 4:08happened to her to stories of infidelity
99. 4:10and a history of running away, leaving
100. 4:13some to question, was all this a hoax.
101. 4:16Keith and Sherry went on trying to
102. 4:18rebuild their lives for several years
103. 4:21until 2020 when there was a break in the
104. 4:23case. Authorities tell the couple
105. 4:26they've identified Sherry's
106. 4:27ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, based off of
107. 4:30DNA collected from Sherry's clothing.
108. 4:32What is it like sitting in that room? I
109. 4:35am ecstatic. Like we have the we have a
110. 4:38lead. We've got him. So I'm very happy
111. 4:42in that moment. And then you can quickly
112. 4:44see how it turns when they do finally
113. 4:46say James Reyes. My body language. You
114. 4:49can see I'm starting to scoot away. And
115. 4:52it's it's really hitting me. Authorities
116. 4:54capturing audio from the moments they
117. 4:56approached Reyes about Sher Pini. We're
118. 4:59here guarding Sher Pini. I didn't kidnap
119. 5:01her. You know, I just
120. 5:04friend in need asked me for help and
121. 5:06that was that. Reyes told authorities
122. 5:09that during those 22 days, she was in
123. 5:11his apartment hitting herself to create
124. 5:14bruises and burning herself. In August
125. 5:172020, they bring Sherry and Keith in to
126. 5:20confront her with the truth. The DNA
127. 5:23that was on you belongs to James Ray. We
128. 5:27talked to him. We've been on a
129. 5:30polygraph.
130. 5:31It's not an abduction. She asked me to
131. 5:34come get her. No. I rented a car. I
132. 5:37drove up and picked her up.
133. 5:40You You passed the polygraph test, Shar.
134. 5:44That's not what happened. What did
135. 5:45happen, Jane? I don't know.
136. 5:49No, there's no way. It's changed.
137. 5:52There's no way. There's no way. The DNA
138. 5:55doesn't lie.
139. 5:56It's my fault that I was flirting with
140. 5:58other men. It was such a stupid thing to
141. 6:01do. I love my husband. Flirting with my
142. 6:05children. That's understandable. Stupid.
143. 6:07Here's the deal though, Sherry. Flirting
144. 6:09with other men, not a crime.
145. 6:13Lying to me today, yes, a crime. In
146. 6:17March 2022, Sher Pini was arrested and
147. 6:20later plead guilty to lying to a federal
148. 6:23officer.
149. 6:25Back in the courtroom, Keith and his
150. 6:26attorneys arguing that Sherry is
151. 6:28continuing to change her story. Still
152. 6:31claiming she was in fact kidnapped, but
153. 6:33pointing the finger at Reyes. Now she's
154. 6:36saying she was kidnapped again, but by
155. 6:38James, but that is also a lie. This is
156. 6:41literally the same thing she did in
157. 6:432016. ABC News tried to reach Reyes and
158. 6:46did not hear back. Sher Pini's changing
159. 6:49of the story does apply very heavily to
160. 6:51the custody of her children. It goes
161. 6:53towards the idea of the emotional abuse
162. 6:56that Keith Pini is arguing in this case.
163. 7:00Sherry hoping to move forward with more
164. 7:02time with her children. She currently
165. 7:04gets one supervised visit a month. A
166. 7:07therapist who treated her testifying
167. 7:09that she's changed. She has changed. She
168. 7:12has she's actually good at therapy. The
169. 7:17next hearing in the case is slated for
170. 7:19May. Sherry expected to take the stand.
171. 7:22This Sher Pini saga has has morphed over
172. 7:24the years. This custody dispute for Sher
173. 7:27Pini is an uphill battle and then some.