Who is Katie Sorensen? Mom influencer Instagram video scandal explained 

On Wednesday, April 26, Katie Sorensen, a “mom influencer” from California’s Sonoma County was found guilty of making a false report of a crime. In December 2020, Katie fabricated a story about a Latino couple and alleged that they were trying to abduct her children in the parking lot of a Petaluma Michaels craft store, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

She video-recorded the allegation and shared it on Instagram. Petaluma police then began a probe into the suspicious incident, but found no criminal evidence or witnesses to back up Katie’s story. In April 2021, Katie Sorensen was charged with filing a false report about an alleged abduction attempt.

The Latino man and the woman were identified by local media outlets in Petaluma as Eddie and Sadie Martinez. They were cleared of any wrongdoing by the authorities.

On Thursday, April 27, the district attorney’s office said that Katie’s report to the police was determined by the court to be false and was emphatically denied by the accused couple. Her claims were also contradicted by a store surveillance video obtained by investigators.

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Katie Sorensen can get a maximum of 6 months sentence in jail

Katie Sorensen faces a maximum sentence of 6 months in jail. (Image via Twitter/@PAULANEALMOONEY)

In the now-deleted Instagram video, Katie alleged that the Latino couple followed her into the Michaels store and trailed her while she shopped with her two children in a stroller. She also claimed that the couple made comments about her children’s appearance.

Katie added that the man and the woman gave her the “heebie-jeebies” and did not appear to be “clean-cut individuals”. She said that she was paralyzed with fear and was thus unable to say anything to them.

In the video, Katie Sorensen further alleged that the couple followed her out of the store to the parking lot and lingered near her stroller while she was placing her children in the car. She claimed that she yelled for help, after which the couple drove off. Katie posted two videos recounting her allegations, and both videos gained over 4.5 million views on Instagram.

Following the incident, Katie filed an attempted abduction report to the Petaluma police. Investigators, however, deemed the report to be a suspicious circumstances case and noted the inconsistencies between the information provided in the Instagram video and her account to the officers.

By December 2020, Petaluma police said that they did not find any evidence of a crime based on Katie’s allegations and closed the case.

Eddie and Sadie Martinez also denied Katie’s allegations and told the Petaluma Argus-Courier that they were at the store to buy Christmas decorations, and they believed that the influencer's false accusations were racially motivated.

Eddie and Sadie Martinez with their daughter Valentina Martinez. (Image via Crissy Pascual)

Katie Sorensen was arrested in April 2021. However, after numerous delays, her trial began on April 18, 2023. She was officially charged with three misdemeanor counts of giving false information to the police and a detective on three different occasions.

Prosecutors said that the 31-year-old mom influencer was trying to boost her Instagram brand at the time and raise money by making the attempted abduction claims in her videos. During the April 2023 trial, Katie Sorensen’s lawyer Charles Dresow reportedly argued that Katie had misinterpreted the events at the Michaels’ parking lot because she was stressed out due to the Covid-19 pandemic at the time.

Jurors acquitted Katie Sorensen of the first two counts. But she was found guilty of the third count, which was related to a December 14 interview with the police. She was quickly taken into custody.

Officials said that she is currently being held in the Sonoma County jail. Katie is due to be sentenced in June and is expected to face up to six months in prison.