A California woman and Instagram “mom influencer” who falsely reported and posted online that a couple tried to kidnap her two young children in 2020 was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail, it said. to the prosecutors.
A Sonoma County Superior Court judge sentenced the woman, Katie Sorensen, 30, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. He was convicted in April of making a false report, a misdemeanor.
The district attorney, Carla Rodriguez, said 60 of the 90 days could be served in a work release program.
Ms. Sorensen was also sentenced to 12 months of informal probation. During this time, he was ordered to have no presence on social media, submit to a warrantless search and seizure of his electronic devices and complete a four-hour impartiality training program, in addition to paying various fees. fines and fees, the district attorney said. . Ms. Sorensen faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
He was immediately remanded after his sentence.
“Ms. Sorensen is responsible for his crime, and we believe that the judge handed down a fair sentence,” said Ms. Rodriguez in the statement. “Our hope is that this measure of accountability will help bring some closure to the couple who were wrongly accused of attempting to kidnap two young children.”
The lawyer of Ms. Sorensen, Charles D. Dresow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
On December 7, 2020, Ms. Sorensen visited the Michaels craft store in Petaluma, Calif., about 40 miles north of San Francisco, with her 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.
After buying some items, prosecutors said, she loaded her children into her car and left the store’s parking lot.
“A few minutes later Ms. Sorensen called the Petaluma Police Department and reported that a couple had attempted to kidnap her children,” prosecutors said.
About a week ago, Ms. Sorensen posted an Instagram video depicting the “near abduction of her young children, adding significant details that the Petaluma Police Department has not disclosed,” prosecutors said.
In the video, which has since been removed, she said she wanted to share her story to raise awareness “and just to encourage parents to be more aware of their surroundings.” He described being followed into the store by a couple who made comments about children and tried to kidnap them.
The video has been viewed over four million times, and Ms. Sorensen appeared on a local news program to repeat his story, which attracted more attention.
When the Petaluma police followed up Ms. Sorensen, he identified the couple from the Michaels store surveillance video as the alleged kidnappers.
The couple, Sadie Vega-Martinez and her husband, Eddie Martinez, who said they shopped at the store, “cooperate fully with the investigation” and “deny the allegations made against them,” the Petaluma Police Department said. said at the time.
In 2021, Ms. Sorensen is charged with three misdemeanor counts of making a false report of a crime. The jury acquitted him on the first two counts, which related to statements he made to a police dispatcher and a police officer on December 7. But he was convicted because of statements he made in a third interview, which happened a week later with a detective.
