Sadie Vega-Martinez and Eddie Martinez (L), and Katie Sorensen (R) (Images via Inside Edition/screengrab, Instagram screengrab)
A 31-year-old “momfluencer” was sentenced to jail after falsely reporting to police that a couple tried to kidnap her kids at a Michaels arts and crafts store in December 2020.
Kathleen “Katie” Sorensen, a white mother of two, made an Instagram video in which she made up a story about Sadie Vega-Martinez and Eddie Martinez — a Hispanic couple who she did not know — trying to kidnap her then 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. That went viral in December 2020.
Sorensen was sentenced to jail on Thursday on a single count of knowingly making a false report of a crime, prosecutors said. During her sentencing hearing, Judge Laura Passaglia ordered Sorensen to serve 90 days in jail, 60 of which could be done on a work release program.
Sorensen was immediately remanded into custody to begin serving her sentence. She was also placed on 12 months of informal probation and will be prohibited from having a social media presence during this time. She must also submit to warrantless search and seizure, including her electronic devices, complete a four-hour implicit bias training, and pay various fines and fees, officials said.
“Ms. Sorensen has been held accountable for her crime, and we believe the Judge handed down a fair sentence,” Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said. “Our hope is that this measure of accountability will help provide some closure to the couple that was falsely accused of having attempted to kidnap two young children.”
After the verdict, Vega-Martinez told Elle justice was served.
“I feel like it’s a step in the right direction for my family,” she said. “I’m grateful for the support.”
The ordeal began on Dec. 7, 2020, when Sorensen, who reportedly posted about motherhood and other topics regularly on social media, went to the Michaels craft store with her two young children. After buying a few items, she returned to her car, loaded her children in, and left the parking lot.
A few minutes later, she called the Petaluma Police Department and reported that a couple had tried to kidnap her children. About a week later, she published an Instagram video going into great detail about the “near abduction” of her young children.
In it, she included “significant additional details” that she hadn’t told cops, officials said.
The Instagram video went viral.
“Monday of this week, my children were the targets of attempted kidnap,” Sorenson said in the video, “Good Morning America” reported. “I want to share that story with you in an effort to raise awareness as to what signs to look for and to just encourage parents to be more aware of their surroundings.”
In a follow-up interview with police, Sorensen identified the Petaluma couple from store video as the perpetrators, prosecutors said.
“Ms. Sorensen’s report was determined to be false and resoundingly contradicted by the accused couple as well as store video that was obtained,” prosecutors said.
As Law&Crime previously reported, prosecutors theorized she made up the story to grow her social media following and raise money.
Before making the false claims about the kidnapping, Sorensen spent much of 2020 trying to establish and expand her “brand” on Instagram with limited success, authorities said in court documents.
She said she needed money to support her children’s home-schooling program and to pay for treatments for her autistic son. She sought to monetize her posts, much centered around scenes and stories regarding her family, personal life, and children.
She also apparently adhered to the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers may tend to see kidnappers around every corner and draw false correlations between insignificant or innocuous behaviors, court documents said.
“While political views or affiliation should in no way influence the suitability of a defendant for diversion, the defendant was found to be in significant engagement with QAnon conspiracy theories which tend to center around kidnappers and pedophiles,” court documents said.
“When adherents act on these beliefs and correlations, there can be serious negative ‘real-world’ consequences to innocent businesses, institutions, and people,” court papers also said. “This could include Eduardo and Sadie Martinez … Fortunately for the Martinez[es], video evidence has caused the defendant’s account to be called into question.”
Sorensen’s attorney Charles Dresow said in an email to Law&Crime that his client was acquitted of two charges stemming from what she reported on Dec. 7, 2020, the day of the non-incident. She misunderstood a series of random events and made an honest report to the police that day, he said.
“The collision of social media and the criminal justice system was the dominating narrative of the case,” he said.
Law&Crime’s Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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