A California lady and Instagram “mother influencer” who falsely reported and posted on-line {that a} couple had tried to kidnap her two younger kids in 2020 was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail, prosecutors stated.
A Sonoma County Superior Court docket choose sentenced the girl, Katie Sorensen, 30, the Sonoma County District Legal professional’s Workplace stated in a statemen. She was convicted in April of constructing a false report, a misdemeanor.
The district lawyer, Carla Rodriguez, stated that 60 of the 90 days may very well be served on a work-release program.
Ms. Sorensen was additionally sentenced to 12 months of casual probation. Throughout this time, she was ordered to don’t have any social media presence, to undergo warrantless search and seizure of her digital units and to finish a four-hour implicit bias coaching program, along with paying varied fines and charges, the district lawyer stated. Ms. Sorensen had confronted a most sentence of six months in jail.
She was instantly remanded after her sentencing.
“Ms. Sorensen has been held accountable for her crime, and we imagine the choose handed down a good sentence,” Ms. Rodriguez stated within the assertion. “Our hope is that this measure of accountability will assist present some closure to the couple that was falsely accused of getting tried to kidnap two younger kids.”
Ms. Sorensen’s lawyer, Charles D. Dresow, didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Friday.
On Dec. 7, 2020, Ms. Sorensen visited a Michaels craft retailer in Petaluma, Calif., about 40 miles north of San Francisco, along with her 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, prosecutors stated.
After buying some objects, prosecutors stated, she loaded her kids into her automotive and left the shop’s car parking zone.
“A couple of minutes later Ms. Sorensen referred to as the Petaluma Police Division and reported {that a} couple had tried to kidnap her kids,” prosecutors stated.
A couple of week later, Ms. Sorensen revealed a video on Instagram describing “the close to abduction of her younger kids, including vital particulars that had not been disclosed to the Petaluma Police Division,” prosecutors stated.
Within the video, which has since been deleted, she stated she wished to share her story to boost consciousness “and to only encourage dad and mom to be extra conscious of their environment.” She described being adopted across the retailer by a pair who had made feedback in regards to the kids and tried to kidnap them.
The video was seen greater than 4 million instances, and Ms. Sorensen appeared on a neighborhood information program to repeat her account, drawing wider consideration.
When Petaluma law enforcement officials adopted up with Ms. Sorensen, she recognized a pair from a surveillance video on the Michaels retailer because the alleged kidnappers.
The couple, Sadie Vega-Martinez and her husband, Eddie Martinez, who stated that they had been buying on the retailer, “totally cooperated with the investigation” and “denied the allegations being made in opposition to them,” the Petaluma Police Division stated on the time.
In 2021, Ms. Sorensen was charged with three misdemeanor counts of constructing a false report of a criminal offense. The jury acquitted her of the primary two counts, which have been associated to statements she had made to a police dispatcher and a police officer on that Dec. 7. However she was convicted for her statements made within the third interview, which occurred every week later with a detective.
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