California Woman Gets 90 Days in Jail for False Report of Kidnapping Attempt

A file photo of a police car. (Illustration/Shutterstock)

A California woman and Instagram “mom influencer” has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after lying to authorities about a Latino couple allegedly trying to kidnap her children, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

Kathleen Sorensen, 31, was sentenced to jail on June 29 for a single count of knowingly making a false report of a crime. She was taken into custody immediately after sentencing.

Sorensen was convicted in April of filing a false criminal report in which she claimed a woman named Sadie Martinez and her husband tried to kidnap Sorensen’s two children in the parking lot of a Michael’s craft store in Petaluma, California, on Dec. 7, 2020.

She later posted viral videos on Instagram that detailed how she avoided the kidnapping attempt.

“I definitely felt the heebie-jeebies,” Sorensen told her viewers, according to a later NBC News report. “I didn’t feel good, but I thought I was judging a book by its cover. They were not kind, that sounds bad, but they weren’t clean-cut individuals.”

Sorensen went on to say she was “paralyzed with fear” by the couple, who she alleged followed her and her children outside to their car. She alleged that she screamed for help, which caused the couple to leave the parking lot.

The district attorney’s office said the videos added “significant details that had not been disclosed to the Petaluma Police Department.” Those posts on her Instagram account have since been deleted.

Police Involvement

In a follow-up interview with police, Sorensen identified the couple from the store video as the individuals who tried to kidnap her children, the district attorney’s office said. The couple denied the allegations and explained that they visited the craft store to buy a nativity scene and other decorations for a Christmas display.

Police closed the investigation, saying Sorensen’s report proved to be false and “was resoundingly contradicted by the accused couple as well as store video that was obtained,” the district attorney’s office said. The accused couple were cleared by authorities of any wrongdoing.

Martinez, who is Latina, suspected the incident was racially motivated.

“I couldn’t believe it. It’s like we’re literally guilty of being brown while shopping,” she said in a news conference in December 2020.

Sorensen will serve 90 days in jail and will be allowed to serve in a work release program for 60 of those days, according to a news release.

Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said the sentence was fair.

“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,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

The judge also placed Sorensen on 12 months of informal probation. During this time, she was ordered to have no social media presence, submit to warrantless search and seizure of her electronic devices, complete a four-hour implicit bias training, and pay various fines and fees, the district attorney’s office said.