Update (July 5, 2023): Kathleen Sorensen was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being found guilty in April of filing a false police report. In December 2020, she told police a Latine couple attempted to kidnap her children in the parking lot of Michael’s craft store. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office said Sorensen could serve 60 days of her sentence in a work release program. “Ms. Sorensen has been held accountable for her crime and we believe the judge handed down a fair sentence,” District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in a statement. “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.”
Sorensen was also placed on 12 months of “informal probation” and ordered to stay off social media. Along with having to pay “various fines and fees,” she must also “submit to warrantless search and seizure, to include her electronic devices [and] complete a 4-hour implicit bias training.”
Kathleen Sorensen, a social media influencer who lied when she told police a Latine couple attempted to kidnap her children, has been found guilty of filing a false crime report. She was taken into custody after the guilty verdict was read. Her bail was set at $100,000. Sorensen faces up to six months in jail.
In December 2020, the California mom went viral after she posted a video on TikTok describing an incident where she said her kids were nearly abducted in a parking lot of a Michael’s craft store by Sadie and Eddie Martinez.
Sorensen outlines the false kidnapping scheme in detail and at one point even seems to get choked up. She said the Martinezes followed her and her children into the store and made comments about her children that she was able to hear.
During the video, Sorensen said the couple “didn’t look necessarily clean-cut.” When police interviewed Sorensen, she identified the Martinezes from surveillance video footage from inside the store. The Martinezes denied the allegations and law enforcement concluded that Sorensen’s accusations were false. What followed was Sorensen being charged with three misdemeanor counts of making a false report of a crime.
Four months after being accused of attempted kidnapping, Sadie Martinez posted a series of her own TikTok videos to tell her family’s side of the story.
Martinez said she and her husband went to Michael’s to purchase a Nativity set. Two days later, her daughter showed her a photo of them that was circulating online. The photo was released by police looking to identify suspects of a possible kidnapping.
“What made [the accusations] even funnier was … we already have five kids, so we’re obviously not looking for more,” Martinez said.
At a news conference after the accusations, Martinez said she and her husband believed Sorensen’s actions were racially motivated. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It’s like we’re literally guilty of being brown while shopping.”