A social media influencer, Katie Sorensen, 30, has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for making a false crime report. The 'mom influencer' in 2020 reported and posted online that a couple tried to kidnap her two young children.
The 30-year-old influencer accused a Latino couple of kidnapping her children outside a craft store in Petaluma, Calif. According to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, Ms Sorensen was sentenced after being convicted "on a single count of knowingly making a false report of a crime."
According to New York Times report, the district attorney, Carla Rodriguez, said that 60 of the 90 days could be served on a work-release program.
She was also sentenced to 12 months of informal probation. During this time, she was ordered to have no social media presence, to submit to warrantless search and seizure of her electronic devices and to complete a four-hour implicit bias training program, in addition to paying various fines and fees, the district attorney said. Ms Sorensen had faced a maximum sentence of six months in jail, the media outlet said.
"Ms Sorensen has been held accountable for her crime and we believe the Judge handed down a fair sentence," District Attorney Rodriguez said per the website. "We hope 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."
Ms Sorensen visited a Michaels craft store in Petaluma, Calif. on December 7, 2020. She was with her 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. After buying a few items, she left the store with her children.
The prosecutors said, "A few minutes later Ms. Sorensen called the Petaluma Police Department and reported that a couple had tried to kidnap her children."
After a week, she posted a video on Instagram and described "the near abduction of her young children, adding significant details that had not been disclosed to the Petaluma Police Department," prosecutors added.
In the now-deleted video, she said she wanted to share her story to raise awareness. She said she was being followed around the store by a couple who had commented about the children and tried to kidnap them. Her video was viewed more than four million times. She also appeared on a local news program to share her story.
Police soon reacted and followed up with Ms Sorensen. She identified a couple at the store as the alleged kidnappers.
The couple, Sadie Vega-Martinez and her husband, Eddie Martinez fully cooperated with the investigation and denied the allegations being made against them, the Petaluma Police Department said at the time.
The influencer was charged with three misdemeanour counts of making a false report of a crime.
