Ex-Sonoma County ‘mom influencer’ Katie Sorensen sentenced to 30 days in jail, 60 days work release

A judge sentenced a former Sonoma woman to jail Thursday for lying to police about an attempted kidnapping she detailed in a viral Instagram video nearly three years ago.

Katie Sorensen, who’d been out of custody, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 60 days under work release.

The 30-year-old was placed into handcuffs and escorted out of a Sonoma County courtroom Thursday morning after appearing before Judge Laura Passaglia. She never addressed the court and showed little emotion throughout proceedings.

Sentencing caps off a case that began in December 2020 and has since attracted national attention for what was said to be a racially motivated hoax. Sorensen, who is white, claimed a Latino Petaluma couple, Sadie and Eddie Martinez, tried to abduct her children outside a Michaels store.

Both attended Thursday’s hearing, and Sadie Martinez briefly addressed Sorensen before the court. She said a “heartfelt apology” could have prevented matters from reaching this point.

“This didn’t have to be like this,” Sadie Martinez said.

Officials maintain Sorensen never took responsibility for her allegations that brought unwanted attention onto the Martinezes.

As she handed down the sentence, Passaglia said Sorensen handled the matter with “selfishness and maliciousness” toward the Martinezes, the community and police.

Sorensen will be under a 12-month conditional release that began Thursday. After being released from jail, she will need to meet terms that include having no contact with the Martinezes, being subjected to search and seizures, not using social media and complete a four-hour implicit bias training.

“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,” District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Waner told Passaglia on Thursday the prosecution would have preferred Sorensen be placed on formal supervision, which would have included heavier restrictions following her release from custody.

Although the case involved a misdemeanor, Waner said the harm inflicted by Sorensen was “very enduring” due to its social media involvement.

“This is very serious. In fact, the most serious (false report) we had in office since January 2020,” he told Passaglia.

Sorensen would be allowed to return home to Montana following work release, but her defense attorney, Charles Dresow, said his client would spend the duration of her sentencing in Sonoma County.

He said the sentencing terms were fair.

“The judge obviously balanced the factors that she saw very carefully and ultimately, in our system, the judge is the determiner of what a conviction is worth punishment-wise,” Dresow said following Thursday’s hearing.

Sadie and Eddie Martinez reached for each other’s hands as the judge spoke, getting ready to outline Sorensen’s sentence.

Eddie Martinez kissed his wife’s hand.

He later said he wanted to feel the support from the person he started the case with. Holding onto his wife, he reminded himself that whatever happened, they brought it this far.

Following Thursday’s hearing, Eddie Martinez told The Press Democrat justice had been served — but he still empathized with Sorensen.

“Being a parent, to be away from your kids that long — it's tough,” he said. “I feel bad.”

He added, “hopefully this might teach her a lesson of seeing other sides of life. Experiencing that, hearing that, going through it — it might wake her up and help her see the light.”

Sadie Martinez concurred, saying she hopes Sorensen feels remorse.

“When you make a mistake, own it,” she said. “Doubling down didn't do anything but hurt her even more.”

How we got here

On April 26, a jury convicted Sorensen of one count of filing a false police report but acquitted her of two others related to alleged false statements she made in interviews with the dispatcher and officer.

Each count carried a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail or under work release.

A video of Sorensen recounting her unproven claims that the Martinezes tried to kidnap her children while they were all at a Michaels store on North McDowell Boulevard on Dec. 7, 2020, went viral after she posted it on Instagram.

The Martinezes said the allegation was racially motivated and called for Sorensen's prosecution for filing a false police report.

“I couldn’t believe it. It’s like we’re literally guilty of being brown while shopping,” Sadie Martinez said at a 2020 news conference about the Dec. 7 encounter.

The defense argued the incident was not racially motivated and that Sorensen had indicated a white person was among the suspicious people she encountered.

She claimed the couple followed her through the store before trying to grab her son’s stroller in the parking lot. She called a dispatcher minutes after leaving the store and was interviewed by a Petaluma police officer.

The Instagram video emerged a week later.

Supporters maintain she was trying to protect her children and, amid her court proceedings, launched websites defending her.

During an interview with Petaluma police shortly after the alleged incident, Sorensen identified two people who appeared in a surveillance photo presented to her by investigators as the couple that she said tried to take her kids.

Investigators ultimately concluded that they did nothing wrong as the attempted kidnapping never happened.

Investigators say her Instagram video included details that weren’t presented during her first interview with law enforcement, including that someone tried to grab her son’s stroller.

Charges were filed against Sorensen in May 2021.

Proceedings slowed as she tried to secure diversion, a process that dismisses misdemeanor charges if a defendant meets terms and conditions presented in court.

Passaglia twice denied diversion, arguing Sorensen never took responsibility for her actions or explained why she made the claims of attempted kidnapping.

Prosecutors maintain Sorensen was an “influencer” attempting to financially benefit from her social media content.

According to court documents, prosecutors also said Sorensen was “in significant engagement with QAnon conspiracy theories, which tend to center around kidnappers and pedophiles.”

During Sorensen’s jury trial, the prosecution presented surveillance videos that showed she and the Martinezes never interacted at the Michaels store.

Sorensen testified that she misinterpreted the events of Dec. 7. Prosecutors, though, continue to balk at that explanation.

“That is a self-serving explanation,” Waner said during sentencing.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi