Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Legally Brunette. I'll be your host Emily Simpson and my co host Shane. You're supposed to say, just Shane, Shane, just Shane. All right. Our last episode we did we went through a little bit of the Karen Reid trial, but we also got to the closing arguments and the verdict. However, I thought it was important at the top of this episode just to talk a little bit about the Alberts and mccabes because they decided to give interviews right after the verdict
came out. So let's talk about who was interviewed now. Brian Albert, who was the one who owned the home and he was a Boston police officer where John O'Keeffe was found dead outside of his home, His wife Nicole, his brother Chris, as well as his sister in law, who we all know is Jen McCabe, the one who testified in court, and her husband Matt All spoke to ABC News in an interview which was released on Friday, June twentieth. This was two days after Karen Reid was acquitted.
All five were witnesses at Reed's first trial. However, when they did the reach trial. Jennifer McCabe was the only one who testified at the retrial. Now, I was thinking about this, and I assume the prosecution puts on their on their case and they were like, Okay, we don't need any of you to testify again because that did not work the first time around. So Jen McCabe was the only one who actually testified for the prosecution.
You mean you think that they had her testify and then after it was a bad testimony for them, then they decided not to have anyone else.
No, I think all of these people that were all within the house all testified in the first trial, and then when the retrial came along.
Okay, so even before the second trial, they realized like, this is not a good idea.
I think they were like, none of they're not credible, and we're just not going to put them on. So Jen McCabe, who is the who is the sister in law of Brian Albert who owns the home, is the only one who testified at the retrial. All right, So let's just go over a little bit of what they did. The families have been accused by Reid and her defense lawyers to be the ones who were responsible for John
O'Keeffe's death. That was the That was their defense was that there was a conspiracy and that these police officers all conspired together that something happened to John within the home, and then that they put the body out on the lawn. They blame Karen Read for it. But in the interview, Brian Albert describes the theory as quote preposterous and silly. You do realize for this conspiracy to be true, it would take thirty to fifty people to be in on it.
This is what Albert told Matt Gutman, who is the interviewer. I don't understand how people buy this.
You're gonna price speak to it, but I don't know if I agree with it takes thirty to whatever people to be in on it.
So I had the same question. I remember when this trial was going on, initially thinking if this is a conspiracy and that's the defense's play, it really is astonishing to me that someone has not come forward or spoken out or broke this pack that they have.
It's not surprising to me. It happens a lot. If there's like a drug party and someone dies, there's all these people at the party house and people are like, I'm staying out of it, walking away.
Well, it makes me not like.
Their hands are dirty per se, they're just staying away from it.
Yeah, And it makes me also think about pity. Yeah and his freak offs. I mean, these have been going on.
For years, years, and those are people that don't even benefit from the freak cops. They're just like security guard, janitors, you know, pairman, Yeah, others delivering the baby celebrities.
So the fact that no one was talking about these freak offs and there were so many people involved and it went on for years and years and years, goes to.
Show you that you can have It's like you see an accident, does everyone pull over and try to say, I'm a waitness, I can help out. No, A lot of people just think I gotta go to work and these drive.
Off, all right. So, Brian Albert also addressed one of the major criticisms Reid's defense had on his conduct of the morning of January twenty ninth, twenty twenty two. Despite being a fellow Boston Police officer and a trained first responder, Albert never left his home, which is one of the things that we talked about when we did earlier episodes, was how bizarre it is that he is a police officer. He's inside this home, there's a body found dead on
his lawn. He's a first responder. It's a fellow police officer, and he never leaves his home to find out what happened, to ask to inquire, and police never went inside his I'm.
Sure when he pulls someone over for a moving violation, he's very detail oriented, takes notes, yeah, checks all the paperwork, completes the form for the ticket. But then with this dead body on his lawn, and he's.
Like, he doesn't want it, he's not interested.
No, he's got to get his floor as repaired.
So during this interview, Brian Albert says, what am I supposed to do? Run out front in my underwear and start running yellow tape around the fire hydrant. Yes, I'm not a Canton police officer. I'm a Boston police officer. I was just woken up out of a cold sleep from hanging out the night before. By the time I came downstairs, the police were already in my house. John was already gone, and there was nobody to save. First of all, he says in the interview, the police were already in my house.
Well, yeah, there's police. No, but please live in that house. He is the police, isn't he.
Yeah, but he's referring to the police that we're investigating, and that's not true. I feel like this is just.
Well, if it is true, then it's what information did they gather by being inside the house?
Well, I think it's confirmed that there were no No one went in the house.
Is saying that because he's.
A liar, because I don't, because I think he's making up what happened that day, because there's in my opinion, allegedly there was something nefarious that went on in that house, and that there's a cover up.
Everyone's opinion this right, So now that.
He's giving first of all, it probably wasn't a great idea for them to give an interview.
They probably would you give an interview, I think.
Because people think they're going to change people's minds that they're if they speak to it, and they and they and they're convincing enough in their own head that they're going to convince other people. I think all it did was make them look more guilty. He says, I would have taken a bullet for John O'Keeffe because he was a fellow cop.
Yeah, but I'm not going to go out there. But I'm not going to go out there my body and see if he's alive or dead.
Or I'll take a bullet. But I'm not going to go out there with manderwear and run yellow tail.
And I won't testify and I won't admit for any wrongdoing, but I'll take a bullet.
And I would take a bullet Matt McCabe.
Because it's sorry. That's because it's easy to say that. People say that all the time that they'll they'll do anything. I mean, it's easy to say that or say I'll lay down my life or I'll give my life. But but when you're actually in the position, will he take a bullet?
No, doubt it, No, absolutely not.
I wouldn't I take a bullet from my friends?
Yeah no, probably not. No, you probably would take a bullet for me. Like what are you talking about?
Son, who's firing? And what you did.
Matt McCabe said the group stayed silent because they wanted to let the court do its job. We took what we thought was the high road, he said. Brian Albert adds the criminal justice system has led us down at every turn. Yesterday when Karen was acquitted, was the final letdown. No one protects you, and it's very very sad. Think long and hard before you're a witness in a case, added his wife Nicole. She said she was just sad for John's family. Yeah, and I mean we've talked about that.
We're all sad for John O'Keefe's family. The real travesty is that there's no closure in this case, and they still have the civil lawsuit going on. But yep, we'll see what happens with that. The Oke family has not issued.
A public A civil lawsuit might reveal more information, right, because some things might be more admissible in a civil case.
Yeah, we need to dive into that. I have heard and I don't know if this is true, but it has to do also with Karen's behavior that night in the house when she couldn't find John because his daughter was in the house and she was fourteen, and there's something about her possibly being traumatized by the way Karen acted or so I think I.
Think they'll be more to learn. Yeah, maybe still some more questions to be answered, but there'll be more to learn as a result of the civil case.
So the Okey family has not issued to public statements since the verdict and did not speak to the press outside the courthouse. They are still suing read for John O'Keefe's death in a civil lawsuit. All right, let's move on to Sherry Peppini. I'm so excited to do this case because it is nuts and I love talking about nutty women because I like there's I am always intrigued by Shane's reaction.
I don't know much about this case.
I know you don't Cherry Peppini. First of all, there was a documentary I'm going to tell you if you guys drink, I would like sh First of all, let me tell you the order you need to go about watching this, because I feel like too many people who are now interested in the Sherry Peppini case are only watching the four part documentary that came out on Identity What is It ID Identification Discovery, which is the the most newly released interview that she did after serving time
in prison. If you only watch that, I feel like you might be a little biased and a little jaded. So I would suggest that if you're interested in a full account of what happened, go and watch the Hulu documentary It's called a Perfect Wife, that is about what happened with this kidnapping and everything. It gives you a very deep background into her life and her husband and
her kids and this whole kidnapping. Then watch the new four part interview that she does recently, because I feel like you have to put those two together to really have a full concept of everything.
Perfect Wife, Well, I mean, I get why is it called perfect Wife?
I think because that's the way she portrayed herself as like this perfect wife and mom and really in reality, she's insane. All right, Let's get into Sherry. Let's get into Sherry pep Beanie.
So.
Sharry is a California mother of two who's twenty sixteen disappearance and dramatic or sparked national attention, only to unravel years later as one of the most notorious kidnapping hoaxes in modern times. So this happened back in November two of twoenty and sixteen. Peppini is believed to have been
kidnapped during an eleven AM jog. Her husband, Keith Peppini, says he last received a text from Sherry at ten thirty seven am asking if he planned to return home for lunch, but he claims he didn't see the text right away and responded back around one thirty pm. Keith reports her missing that evening after he comes home to find she isn't there and had not picked up the
kids from daycare. He does find my iPhone and that led Keith to Sherry's phone and earbuds, which were found on the ground with strands of hair appearing as though there had been some type of struggle. Authorities and family members launch an intensive search and public awareness campaign. Now he starts doing a lot of interviews. Of course, what does everyone say when a wife disappears? They clearly please.
Come home, please go.
And when I watched his interviews, it kind of it reminded me of Scott Peterson when Lacey was missing and he did all the interviews about you know, like Marie, come back, please come back, bring my wife back. Although Scott Peterson is dead in the face, at least Keith Peppinie has I find him somewhat more believable. When I was watching his interviews, I felt as if I didn't think, like, Okay, he's the one.
What state is this in?
This is in northern California and reading. So Sherry Peppini disappears from November third to November twenty third, She's gone around twenty two days. Local, state, and federal law enforcement are involved in the missing person's case. I do know that Keith also requested that the FBI be involved. Someone told him that he should do that, and there is video of him during his interviews asking for the FBI to be involved. Social media and go fund me campaigns
draw national attention. There was a GoFundMe that raised more than forty two thousand towards search efforts, and the Peppini family also offered a fifty thousand dollars reward for Sherry's safe return. He also made. Keith also made many emotional appearances on Good Morning America, ABC News, et cetera, describing his wife as a supermom and pleading for her safe return.
That's that's sign of guilt right there.
What the supermom? Yeah, well, he's not guilty. November twenty fourth is Thanksgiving Day. At four thirty am, Sherry is found in the middle of country Road seventeen and I five in Yolo County, Yolo. You only live once.
It's not the last one in apathetic order, though it's not Yuma County, Yuma, it's a close one. It's a close second.
It was near the Woodland area, about one hundred and fifty miles south of where she first disappeared. She has found bruised and emaciated, with bindings and a brand on her shoulder that says Exodus. Her hair has also been cut. Was Exodus, Well, it's a Bible.
Verse, I know, but like I don't know, Yeah, what was the significance of that?
I don't know, not really anything, I don't think.
Was it like a certain font or was it a certain like style that means some type of cult?
I don't know.
We would have to ask Sherry that did tattoo. I'd be like, okay, whatever, But you said branded, it's different.
It's branded. It was burned onto her.
Yeah, that's that's Sherry's story.
She claims that she was captured by two Hispanic women and a dark suv while on her run. They took her to an unknown location, which she claims to have been drugged during the car ride, so she didn't know where she was. She said she was physically restrained, with her wrists and ankles chained and a bag over her head for the majority of the time. She said she was beaten repeatedly, often just for fun, by one of the women, who she referred to as the mean one.
She claims she was starved, losing a significant amount of weight, reportedly fifteen to twenty pounds within a twenty two day period that she was gone. She said her two captors branded her on the right shoulder with a heated tool, though she didn't know what the word act that is meant,
Apparently it is a reference to the Bible. She was forced to use a small bucket as a latrine, and she reported that one of the women appeared more sympathetic and that her release was likely negotiated by her I watched her interview when she was telling the police, and she calls the two Hispanic women that she claims abducted her.
She says there was a big one and there was a small one, and she said the big one was the mean one, and the small one was more sympathetic towards her recorded police interviews was Sherry Peppini, and the hours after her return showed she was reluctant to speak with investigators, claiming that her abductors told her she was going to be trafficked to someone in law enforcement. Sheery avoided doing media interviews after she had escaped. She even avoided large.
Crad Did she escape or negotiate her release?
Well, what happened was they she was found dropped on the side of the room.
I vaguely remember this in the news.
Now I'm starting, and someone picks her up and he calls nine one one, and you can hear his nine one one recording, and he calls her first, he calls her Sherry Panini and then she says Peppini. So a bystander on the highway finds her and calls police, and she's like, has a chain wrapped around her waist and she.
Has She's not very good negotiator.
She has u ties. What are those zip ties?
Cable ties?
Cable ties? Right, So she avoids doing me to interviews after she's caught. There are several interviews that I watch in the documentary where the police are recording her. They're asking her questions about what happened, and I find her so disingenuine and so unlikable. She talks about things that don't make sense, Like she talks about how she texts her husband to come home for lunch, but lunch really
means come home to have sex. I thought that was just odd that these are things that she's telling investigators when supposedly she's, you know, been kidnapped for twenty two days and has been beaten, and she's just making jokes about like sexual references with her husband. She says that she needs to close her eyes when she talks. She can't remember a lot of things anyway. I find her
difficult to believe. There was also a skinheads dot com article amidst all of this, it was discovered that Sherry had written a racist post against the Hispanic community on a skinhead website under her maiden name Sherry Graf.
Prior to or after.
Prior to, the blog entry claims Peppini was persecuted by Latinos at her high school for being of German descent and that she was white and proud of her blood and heritage. The post read, I totally agree with skinheads that girls should not fight, they should stand by their men. Being white is my family, my roots, my way of life. It's always there. There's no denying it. It's nobility, its strength, it will be there. To lift me up when I really need my pride, when I need to keep walking.
When asked about this post, Sherry denies writing it and claims someone impersonated her.
Why would someone in personate her and go on a skinhead website? That's so random?
It is random, But this is what happens when someone is the type of person who repeatedly lies about everything. On October twenty fifth, twenty seventeen.
So you find these cases that are very that just leave lots of questions.
I don't think there's lots of questions. I think that.
It's not going to be confusing. In this case, it sounds like it's going to be very confusing because you just said she's a liar. She's a liar, so well is Shelsey.
So Sherry Peppini asks the FBI, can you do a sketch of the two women who abducted me? So she describes them, and they do a sketch and they release it to the media, and it's two Hispanic women, a bigger one and a smaller one, and they both have masks on because she claims that they covered their face for the majority of the time.
She's just like so she asked for criminal sketch artists. Yes, and then she's like, oh, they wore masks, Yes, I could have drawn that.
So basically they do the sketches of these two Hispanic women. They were basically just their eyes, their eyes and eyebrows. They release it. The media releases it like this is there's new developments in the Sherry Peppina case. The sketch artist has, you know, made these sketches based upon, you know, her detailed account of these two women that abducted her.
The day that the sketch artist releases the sketches to the media is the same day that the FBI gets back DNA testing from her clothing from when she was abducted, and there's male DNA found in her underwear.
And is it has it been excluded that it's not her husband's or boyfriends or whoever it is.
No, it's not it's not her that out Yeah, okay. So in the years following Sherry's return, local investigators as well as the FBI are very skeptical of her claims, so they continue their search and investigation and to her because if.
She got beaten, there'd be some female DNA, you'd assume.
Yeah, but they don't find any female DNA. They only find male DNA, not her husband, multiple males or no one male?
Okay.
The DNA evidence did not match her story. Investigators found male DNA on her clothing and belongings, despite her claim that she was abducted by two women. The DNA did not match her husband or any suspect until it was later matched to her ex boyfriend James Rays.
Wait, how did they make that connection?
Though they did, I don't know. They ran it through COTIS or whatever.
It took a while in the system.
Well no or no, Maybe it wasn't codis. I don't know, it says Familia familial dale.
Maybe the voluntarily.
DNA. Well he, I'm sure he gave up his DNA, so.
Okay.
The lack of forensic evidence supporting the abduction. There were no tire tracks, fingerprints of surveillance footage, or physical signs
of an abduction were found where she allegedly disappeared. And also, I know the FBI investigator also made the claim that they were very suspicious of her from the very beginning because when they found the cell phone and the headphones apparently like her ear plugs or whatever, they were were wrapped up neatly and like laying on top of the cell phone, and the cell phone was lying on the ground. And then there were some blonde hairs that were kind of stuck into the earbuds.
Like someone pulls up to kidnapp her, and she's like, hold on one second, she rolls up her earbuds. Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Yes, So he finds her phone. He actually before he picked up her phone, he took a picture of it.
That's even weirder.
Why is that weirder?
Took a picture of your phone when I found it?
I don't know. I guess because it was evidence and he didn't want to pick it up unless he took a photo of how it was sitting there.
So he takes photos and he might be in it. We'll find out he's gone.
He's not in it. Unusual branding. The forensic experts suggests that exodus branding looked deliberate and controlled, not consistent with the panicked act of violence. I guess, you know, I understand that too. If they're trying to brand her and she's like captive and all these things, wouldn't you be moving around? I think it just was very neatly done.
It looked like she just I don't know, being wrapped up.
Yes, so they found on her penterress page that the same wooden tools that were used to brand her back were part of her pinteress page.
Did they check her Amazon account and she purchased like a brand?
She didn't purchase them. James ray As purchased them. Oh really yes, and he had the receipt for it.
Wait, so why are we bothered at? Okay, so she wanted to go away and get branded by her ex boyfriend or whatever. What's the what's the issue?
Because she said to she said to Hispanic women abducted her. The theory is or what what it comes down to is that ray As is her ex boyfriend and she was having and she calls an emotional affair with him. They got burner phones and they were communicating. Then he comes from he lives in Coasta, Mesa. He drives from Coasta Mesa to reading anything emotion. She's trying to say she didn't have sex with them.
Yeah, well, so was it emotional DNA they found on her underwear?
Yes, it was an emotional DNA on her underwear.
Very well, keep gone.
So they finally figure out because they don't believe her story. The two masks, the getting picked up on Thanksgiving?
Where city they find her in the same city.
No, they found her one hundred and fifty miles away.
Yeah, I thought, wasn't it down here in Coasta Mesa or something.
No, she was James Ray's lived in Coasta Mesa and that's where she spent the twenty two days in Coasta Mesa. Then he drove her, I don't know, one hundred like towards Redding and then dropped her off on the side.
Of the enough emotions for the weekend.
When they on and zip ties she gets out of the car. I think there's actually surveillance of her running without the zip ties. And then when they and then when the police come then find her, she's zip tied, cable ties whatever they're called. And so basically what happens was what they didn't believe her story from the beginning. So they're investigating her the whole time, even though they're not telling her they're investigating her. They just keep interviewing her and interviewing the husband.
And so she just divulges all this information while the.
Whole time the FBI is like, this is a bunch of crap and they're investigating her without telling her. So they find the DNA, they link it to James Ray As the police go to Costa Mesa and they interview him and you can see they don't show him on camera. He clearly did not agree to show his imass or something. Yeah, they show body cams and they show audio, I mean not show, but you can hear audio, but they don't show his face on camera.
Because he's just a witness at this point.
Well, and what he says is that she asked him to come and pick her up because her husband's abusive and she wants to get out of the marriage. So in his eyes or the way he explains it is he's just helping this girl out. So he comes and he picks her Upie takes her to Coast to Mesa. Then she stays for twenty two days in his house.
He probably can't stand her.
I don't know, but he claims that all the physical things, all the harm, the bruises, everything, it was self inflicted, that she did it to herself, or that she directed him to do it. I guess he was a hockey player and she told him to hit her with a hockey puck and he broke her.
Notes like she liked it or like to set up her.
To set up her story. I guess that's how that's how much.
Then he's a psycho too, because it's like, oh, let me go help this woman. What do you need? Do you need me to smack you in the face with that hockey puck?
I agree. I don't understand for one second why this James Rays guy goes along with this, Probably because.
He initially tried to save her and help her, and then you know, get emotional with her, and then they come down to coast to Mesa, and then he realized she's psycho. And then she says, well, let me let me like complete the story and you have I have been a so hit me in the face. And he's like gladly because she's psycho. And then he tied her up and dumped her off and he wants nothing to do with her anymore.
Yeah, I mean I would say that, I would say that's pretty much in a nutshell.
Yeah, And if she was nice and pleasant, I don't think he would hit her in the face with the hockey puck.
One he goes along with this story two. When they interview him, he does not seem to be highly intelligent at all. He seems very like.
Wasn't there receipts for a hotel too? Did they stay in a hotel or his place?
No, they stayed at his home. There was a receipt for him buying the wood burning tools he had that. He's like, look, here's a receipt told me to buy it. And I think that they don't. The FBI doesn't give you a lot of information in these interviews that they do. They're very careful about their tools and tactics and behind the scenes.
Well, that way, then she could say something that might conflict with what they found, and then that would be more suspicious.
Right. But I'm just saying, even when they talk about it after the fact, even giving interviews after the fact, they don't give away a lot of information about how they knew James was manipulated by her. I know he passed, you know, a lie detector test, but we'll talk later
about her because she takes one later. But I just I don't I feel like he's almost so simple, like he's not highly intelligent, that he just went along with this crazy scheme, because who in their right mind, has someone stayed with them for twenty two days when they have a wife, when they have a husband and young children, and then goes along with physically abusing them, and then goes along with dumping them on the side of the road, and doesn't think that that looks bad for them.
It really makes my life feel very boring. Yeah, you're like, yeah, like you know, and he's probably less stressed than I am in.
His life, probably so. After they found James's DNA, this was in August of twenty twenty, the FBI contacted and questioned James Reyes at his home in Coasta, Mesa, And let's just talk about what he told the investigators. He says that Peppini had reached out to him. He confirmed that he and Peppini had previously dated in the early two thousands. They were in constant communication via burner phones. Months before her disappearance, she'd tell him she needed to
escape her abusive marriage and start over. He agreed to help her and picked her up in Reading, driving her six hundred miles south to his apartment in Costa Mesa. He claims she was never kidnapped. Rey said that Peppini stayed willingly in his apartment for the entire twenty two days that she was missing. He described her as staying mostly inside doing household chores, watching TV, and exercising. He claims she even watched the news coverage of her own disappearance.
Injuries were self inflicted or assisted by him. Reyes admitted to helping her create some of the injuries, including holding a hockey stick so she could run into it and purposefully causing bruising. Branding her shoulder using a wood burning tool was at her request, she says later in an interview, to kind of to I don't know, get past the wood burning thing, because you know, I told you this.
Wood burning tools were on her own pinterant page. The way she explains it after the fact is she says, oh, well, when he kidnapped me, we were having a conversation and I was telling him about how I was making these handcrafted Christmas cards with wood burning tools, and he was so interested in it that he went out and bought someone branded my you know, my shoulder. I mean, do you really think she's in Costa Mesa with James Ray's talking about how she makes Christmas cards for her kids.
No, she's watching the coverage of her own.
Right. Security cameras show Peppini running through an empty parking lot towards the highway on Thanksgiving morning. In the footage, her hands are not tied together. She is running normally. However, when a driver found her on the side of the road, they were zip tied and she was wearing a chain around her waist. She's like, don't forget to bring the zip ties and chain. I'll just put him in a I'll just I'll hang on to him and then right before the police come, I'll just put them on myself.
I've always said ziptized. Are they not ziptized?
Sable?
Okay, reyas cooperated fully with the FBI. He consented to DNA collection, provided text messages, and allowed investigators to search his apartment. He passed the polygraph test, and authorities confirmed no chargers were filed against him as he had no
criminal intent and was considered a cooperating witness. All right, so his account directly contradicted everything Peppini had told law enforcement and investigators now had a motive, a means, and the evidence, which was the DNA, the phone records, and the injury creation and that she'd faked her own abduction. The DOJ said Rey's cooperation was truthful, consistent, and corroborated by physical evidence. So the FBI is slowly building their case.
From twenty twenty to twenty twenty two, investigators kept the case quiet for nearly two years. We talked about that. How they continue to talk to Pappinie, have interviews with her, but obviously they don't give away any information that they're investigating this as they kidnapping hoax.
No let her say anything she wants.
Right, They confirm and consistency in her interviews. They track how she spent one hundred thousand plus dollars of victim funds, disability payments, and go fundme donations.
Some of those gounfund me things are people are way too quick to just set them up and give people money, and it's like there's probably a lot of scammers on there.
Well, she got disability because so she's taking disability. She also received money from like a California victims fund. And then also clearly the state or the city or whoever pays for it, taxpayers pay for her for the search efforts. So they build a case against her for mail fraud which are the benefits that she received, and false statement, which is lying to federal agents. On March third of twenty twenty two, Sherry Peppini is arrested while tending her
children's music lessons. The charges against her are mail fraud and making false statements to federal officers. The FBI released a forty four page data outlining all her planning with ray As, her false statements about the two Hispanic women, and her misuse of victim compensation funds. On April eighteenth of twenty twenty two, Sherry Peppini pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements.
Now I know they do an interview with her attorney and she makes it like and when she talks about the allegations against her, and when they arrest her, she does this very woe is me. I don't even understand what's going on. I don't even understand why I'm in jail. I don't understand anything against me. And she talks about how like someone else and jail with her had to explain the charges to her because she didn't even understand
what was going on. I just felt like when she talks, she does a very good job of doing this like victim role. She's very good at that. Here's just something else I want to talk about, because if you watch a Perfect Wife or maybe even in the in her recent interview, after she was married to Keith, I'm not sure how long after, but she got caught texting other men and she has a little history, well, she has a history of what she calls always having these emotional affairs.
And I like how she calls them emotional affairs so that she's never actually admitting that she has sex with
any of these other men. It's basically like Keith was so terrible to her, and he was so awful, and he wouldn't even talk to her, and he was controlling and abusive and all these things that she claims that she always had to have these emotional affairs with other men, and she would save you know, these other guy's numbers with like a female name, so she probably had like Jane and you know, Laurie and all these people that
she was texting with, but they were men. Anyway, Keith finds out that she's been having these you know, emotional affairs as she calls them, with other men, and he makes her sign a post nuptial agreement after they've been married for a while.
This is prior pre kidnapping.
This is pre kidnapping. So I didn't read. I tried to find the post nuptial agreement. They actually show it a little bit on the four part series where she does an interview.
But do you have money or something?
I don't think they have a lot of money. They seem just very middle class to me. He's like an audio visual specialist for Best Buy and she's a stay at home mom. So basically, after he finds out that she's having, you know, these emotional affairs and she's texting other men, he makes her sign a post nuptial agreement.
Why does he just make her agree not to have these emotional affairs like.
A post non emotional affair agreement, So she signs this post nuptial agreement. It's completely one sided. It's basically says if she's caught, well.
It's probably not even valid. I bet he just drafted himself and said, here's sign this right, which you can't do. Both sides need to have an attorney. Even if she says I don't want an attorney, she kind of has to have an attorney to make it valid.
Well, I actually read in a pre nuptial agreement both people have to have representation, but for some reason, in a post nuptial it doesn't say that you have to have representation. It says that it can't be one sided and it can't be unconscionable, but it recommends that you.
Yeah, so he should have made sure she had an attorney so she can't later say what, I didn't know what was going on.
Well, the thing that is interesting to me is that they make a big deal about this post nuptial agreement, about how one sided it was, and in my mind, I'm thinking it wouldn't even be enforceable. Everybody's making it like he forced her to sign it.
Whole scheme of things anyway.
Well, to me, I think the post nuptial agreement is very important because I feel as if she wanted to have an affair with James ray As, but the only way she could have an affair is to make it look like a kidnapping hoax so that the post nuptial agreement wouldn't come into effect because basically he made her sign a very one did.
The post agreement steps then they do.
With an affair, Yes, he made her sign it.
Basically, you can't do that stuff anyway. Sorry, you can't do that stuff anyway. You can't be like, if you cheat on me, you don't get this money.
That's why I'm saying this nuptial agreement that he made her sign was basically, if you cheat on me, if you talk to other men, if you have affairs, you get nothing, you get no money, you.
Leave, or if you stage a kidnapping.
Yeah, he forgot to add that part to.
The emotional affairs. If there's any male DNA found on you.
In your underwear, yes, so to me, I feel as if the post nuptial agreement is very interesting because I feel as if she created this whole kidnapping hoax in order to have an affair with her ex boyfriend, and if she did get caught, then she just blames it on a kidnapping hoax so that she's not actually having an affair with her ex boyfriend, so that the post nuptial agreement doesn't come into effect and he gets to take the kids and all the money and everything, even though,
let's be honest, this post nuptial agreement wouldn't be valid anyway, passable.
It's one sided her it's valid.
Right, but she clearly thinks it's valid.
But you're just guessing all this.
I'm just putting.
I'm just putting your theory.
My theory is that she she.
Signed the agreement and then she tried to abide.
By it, and then she tried to abide by it by thinking, I want to have an affair with my ex emotion my boyfriend, an emotional affair, and I'm going to do it. However, I can't get caught having an affair, so I have to make it look like a kidnapping. So there you go. That's just my my thoughts on.
That her commitment to having affairs is right.
Yes, it is right.
Yeah.
I remember when they do the four part interview where she speaks up and she now claims that it was a kidnapping. So that's where we're at now, current like present day.
Well, so she still admits it's that or she still sticks to the story that's a kidnapping.
No, So she was arrested and for the kidnapping, she signs a plea agreement with very specific language basically saying that she planned a hoax, that it was a fake kidnapping. She signs it, and then she's sentenced to I believe, two years in prison. She's released from prison. Now that she's released from prison, here we are in present day and now she's doing interviews and she's saying, you know what, it wasn't a kidnapping hoax. I was abducted. So that's
where we're at today. She's now recanting, well, what's the matter. You already served your time, lady. I don't know, but she claims she's married to this guy.
Still.
No, he filed for divorce after she was the I don't know. They don't they They do an interview with her family law attorney, which is entertaining. She's very entertaining.
Does she have access to those kids? I wouldn't want her to have accesses?
No, currently she does.
Without supervised visitation.
So she's fighting for that's a saying because that's where we're at currently is she's now recanting the kidnapping hoax and saying that she was abducted by James. She's claiming that she lied about it because I guess because she was scared of him, or she didn't want her husband to know she was having an affair so she made up the two Hispanic women. She doesn't want her husband or anyone to know that she was with James, so
she claims she was abducted by two Hispanic women. Then when they found when the FBI says we know it was James because his DNA is in your underwear and we've interviewed him, then she says, oh, well, I said it was James's mom, and I described James's mom, so it would lead you to James without me actually saying it was James. And now that she's out of prison, she's saying it wasn't a kidnapping hoax, it really was James. But then I found the FBI investigator said, which I
found funny. He goes, he said, well, James Ray's his mom was Irish or something like that, Like she wasn't Hispanic anyway. Yeah, she wasn't Hispanic anyway. And she wasn't and she wasn't Hispanic.
Why are they even entertaining whatever she has is saying anyway?
Now, yeah, you know that's maybe.
The public because she's speaking about it and it's interesting, but like, why is law enforcement bothering with her? They shouldn't be, Well, they're not.
Now she's been released from prison and they're not. But here's the thing. Now she's doing all these interviews. So now she did this interview with Investigation Discovery. They made a four part series about her. She went on Nick Vile, the Vile Files, and she's doubling down on them. Believe her story that it was a real abduction.
So let's we get her on here and we call her out.
You want to get Sherry Pepina. Can we make that happen. Let's make Scherry call her out. I would love for you to do an interview with Shane Simpson.
Oh so many holes in her story. It's ridiculous.
So Sherry pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, one count of making false statements, and she was sentenced to eighteen okay, it was eighteen months in prison and agreed to pay three hundred and nine thousand, six hundred and eighty six dollars and thirty three cents in a restitution. This was the breakdown. She took thirty thousand, six hundred
ninety four dollars from the California Victim Compensation Board. She took one hundred and twenty seven thousand, seven hundred and eighty three dollars from the Social Security Administration for benefits, one hundred and forty eight thousand to the Shasta County Sheriff's office for the cost of investigating the case, and twenty five hundred and fifty eight dollars to the FBI for the government sentencing or to the FBI for their
role in it doesn't seem like a lot. Twenty five hundred dollars to the FBI, I don't know, but anyway, that's where they got the breakdown of what her restitution was, which was a total.
Sharyot money like that without I mean, she was able to bamboozle them and get all that money. Well, she got.
Money from the California Victim Compensation, then she got money from the Social Security Administration offices for benefits because she said she.
Was disabled, just to hand out six figures like that.
So Sherry Peppini is released from prison after serving about eleven months in a federal facility. She was released to a residential re entry center then placed on supervised probation. So what has she been doing from twenty twenty three to currently? She lost custody of her two children and who now live with her ex husband Keith. She began telling a revised version of the story, claiming Reya psychologically manipulated her and that she was trapped in twenty twenty
four to twenty twenty five. Her new claims were featured in Perfect Wife, which I told you guys to watch, and Caught in the Lie which is the new one on HBO, which is her most recent interview. And then I guess she has a self published memoir Sherry Peppini doesn't exist. And then she did the Vile Files podcast,
so that's where she's out speaking now. Also, this was another thing that was in this new documentary is she takes a polygraph and I thought for sure that she was going to fail this polygraph.
Because clearly asked her.
So Sharry and James both took polygraphs and both passed, despite their stories contradicting one another.
Enough for me, what did they ask or know?
I do? I do know the questions that she passed. I'll tell you first of all, she failed some of the questions, and she passed some of the questions. The ones that she passed, though, were the ones that were the most important because they go to the heart of this story that she's now telling. So among the questions she was asked while at james house in twenty sixteen, were you free to leave at any time without fear of violence? And did you ask James to brand you?
She answered no to both of those questions and she passed them. Also, I don't know, maybe that's a too too much compound in sent Yeah, that's.
What I'm saying. It matters what they asked.
Were you free to leave at any time without fear of violence? I don't know, I mean maybe that's just too convoluted instead of just asking were you free to leave? Right? You know, Like, I think they made the questions too complicated. Also, I was also thinking that maybe she passed because there's been a long period of time since the kidnapping to when she took this lie detector test.
And who administered light test? Like who who was it that set it up? Did she just do it on her own?
She did it through this new interview, this interview that she did, so I don't know because she did it on camera.
What was the second question you referenced, did you ask.
James to brand you? Which is very straightforward? She said no and she passed that maybe she didn't ask him, Maybe she just gave him the branding tools.
I'm saying how they asked her, there should be follow up questions. There may very well have been.
Yeah, there were other questions that she was asked that she did not pass.
Do polygraph questions are they only? Are they mostly yes?
No?
Questions? Well I don't or like factual like a date or something, or can it be how did you get the branding?
I think you're supposed to make the questions as simplistic as possible with with yes no answers, because what the what what it's reading is a physical response. But my thought was this kidnapping happened in twenty sixteen. Here she is in twenty twenty five taking a lie detector test. Does the passage of time make a difference on a physical response? Maybe she's told this story so many times at this point.
But you know what, even if she's even those questions are accurately answered, it doesn't It doesn't help with anything. It's a mess. Was she wasn't she under what her? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Right, It's still a mess. Right, doesn't solve the case.
I don't think there's any solving it. I think what it comes down to is I think she's a known liar and narcissist and sociopath. I think that she she The fact that they had burner phones and they were communicating she and James, Well, it's.
Anyone that says they're having any emotional fair right there, they're lying.
And the fact that she's returned on Thanksgiving Day, she didn't pick her kids up from daycare that day. I mean, I don't know. To me, it just seems like it was concocted by her. It was her way of having an affair without her husband knowing that she was having an affair. It was an elaborate scheme. I think she lies a lot. I think she's a master at lying. Her interview, there were several parts of her interview that
really bothered me. In this newest interview that she did, there was one part where she looks directly at the camera when she's talking to the producer, because the producer says something like why did you lie? And she looks right at the camera and she goes, haven't you lied? Haven't you lied? Have you ever in your life lied? And I remember sitting there looking at her and thinking, yeah, I'm sure all of us a little bit, like I'll tell Annabel that, you know, we don't have any cookies left.
I remember telling the boys that McDonald's was closed, Like.
You come home and I say where were you? And I'm like, oh, I was kidnapped. This guy was having the emotional affair with right.
I just I thought, Wow, the nerve of this woman to look directly in the camera at us out here, at the audience and say, haven't you ever lied?
The answer is yes, she did. That's what she's saying.
Well, yeah, exactly, Well she's saying she lied about the kidnapping.
I don't know, so, you know, of all things, what gets to me is I wake up worried, stressed about my day. Bill's getting paid this net and these people live just one day at a time.
They live one one kidnapping hopes at a time. Yeah, one whe detector test.
That got, I know, yeah, she got. She probably has way less stress than I do.
Probably. Scherry claims that James passed the lie detector test because he's a sociopath, not her.
Yeah, it's not her.
She's not the sociopath. It's James. He's a sociopath. Keith Peppini claims that his daughter Violet and said Sherry would force her children to inhale cotton swabs drenched and rubbing alcohol when they were sick to make them even more sick. Sherry denies this, claiming she gave her children essential oils when they were sick because they were allergic to vis That was one of the things he said in the documentary.
If you watch The Perfect Wife, at the very end, he talks about how his children said that she would so like cotton balls and alcohol and then tie it around their neck. I don't know if there's any truth to that. I have no idea. It doesn't make any sense that you would tie anything around a child's neck. I don't care if it's essential oils or if it's alcohol. It all seems very odd to me. Sherry's therapist, family lawyer, and sister in law whose name is Suzanne, that's Key's
biological sister, all believe her story. First of all, when you talk about let me just say this, if you guys watch the four part documentary of her recent interview, they do interview her therapist. Her therapist annoys me. He believes everything this woman says.
He it's a male and you're willing. No, I don't like him. Why did you just call him entertaining?
No, I don't like him. I don't like him at all, because this is what I think. I think so many people find a therapist that they yes therapist, someone that they can manipulate, that they can just tell all their their side of the story, and then the therapist is like, those people are wrong, They shouldn't treat you like that.
You're right. Do you really get anything out of therapy if you just find someone that just goes along with everything that you're saying and they can't discern between delusion and fact and lies. And I don't know, I just didn't like the therapist. I felt that like the therapist just enabled her by saying that, you know, he believes everything she said. And the reason she lies is because she has trauma. And when you have a lot of trauma, you just lie about things because you can't really remember
what happened anyway, because there was trauma. I don't know. In Sheery's HBO docuseries, this is the most recent one, her mother, who was supposedly on her side, explicitly said the incident was not a kidnapping. Sherry writes this off as her mother being confused, and also the editing twisting things around. I love when people blame the editing. That happens on Housewives too. Everyone for their bad behavior always
likes to blame the editing. I like when people like after an episode comes out and everyone's liked, it was me, it was that iting. Keith Peppini still retains custody of their two children. Sherry has allowed one supervised visit per month, lasting about one hour. She's allowed weekly calls with the children at Keith's discretion. However, Sherry claims she's only seen her children three times since being out of prison. Also, there's another thing in her this most recent docuseries, she
records herself having a phone call with her children. I guess she gets to talk to them on Sundays. So she sets up the camera and she records herself having a conversation with her kids. She's so dramatic. She she's overly like, oh baby, tell me more. Oh my gosh,
I tell me so much. Yes. Then she hangs up with her children, and then she screams and is like grabbing her head and she's all dramatic, and she's sobbing and sobbing well right that she gets the one weekly phone call with them, And I'm just so I am so turned off by people who set up a phone to record themselves and then record themselves having this over the top, dramatic, ridiculous, you know response. And then they give it to the producers and they're like, here, here, here,
here's what happens here, Please show this. This is what happens. You know when I only get a weekly call with my children, you know, I cry and scream and I act dramatic.
I know there's people to do that. It's ridiculous.
And then there's also another scene where I guess Keith comes over to where she's living and he wants her to sign custody of the children over, and she secretly records him. So she has the phone, she like puts it under the bed, she records him, and then they play this audio and I'm thinking, if you're trying to make this guy look bad, I actually agree with him.
He goes over and he's like, let's just do this the easy way without having to pay attorneys and things like why don't you just sign the kids over to me, this is when she's going to prison. She signed a plea deal. She's going to prison, and she records it as if she's catching him, you know, being mean and
being abusive to her. But let's be honest, she knows that she's recording the conversation, so she's very calm and she says everything correctly, and all it does is catch him saying that that she can do this the easy way or the hard way. She can either sign over custody of the kids or they can fight for custody, and she's going to federal prison. So again, I felt like that was a manipulation tactic of her trying to make this guy look bad and controlling and abusive and
all these things. But anyway, I just found her behavior to be the manipulative behavior. But anyway, all right, are we gonna talk about her more?
Is she like, well, I don't.
I mean, I don't know. It depends on if she has any she has more docuseries explain in trying to say that she it now was a kidnapping hoax. I don't know. I mean, who knows. This woman's all over the place. I don't trust anything that she says, and I do believe the kids are safer with their father. At least I feel like they have some stability with him. And I do know that she has a current family law case where she is trying to get more custody. I mean, you can see what happens with that.
But she'll get some visitation and then they'll be aged out and then they'll be into that.
Anyway, we did our best to try to fit that story into an hour. It's very complex. There's a lot of other things that happen. I would suggest if you find Cherry Peppini's case interesting, to go back and watch A Perfect Wife on Hulu and then watch her four part recent series it's on Max. So thank you for listening to our Sherry Peppini case.
Yeah, thank you, Sherry Peppinia to get for giving us something to talk about. And you are a nut. Just good luck with your life like it is, Shane.
Thanks guys,