“Influencer Mom Faces Jail Time After Falsely Accusing Couple of Kidnapping Attempt”

By dint of wanting to inflate her audience on social networks, an influencer may well have to go through the prison box. Last week, a Sonoma County (California) court found Katie Sorensen guilty of misrepresenting a felony. An offense that could be worth to the 31-year-old American to spend up to 1 year behind bars. Clearly, the Californian is accused of having wrongly accused a couple of having tried to kidnap their 1 and 4 year old children.

The facts date back to December 2020, explains «The Independent». At that time, Katie Sorensen went to report to the police that two individuals had tried to kidnap her two children. A week later, the influencer posted a video on Instagram in which she called on parents to be more aware of their surroundings. The young woman then said that she went to a DIY store with her offspring, installed in a double rickshaw.

A sleazy couple and a white van

According to Katie Sorensen, a couple followed them from the parking lot and one of them was describing the children to a third person on the phone. This same couple would then have followed the small family as they left the store and would have sketched approach movements, “as if they gathered their courage to take action”. The mother says she called for help and the two people ended up driving away. In the aftermath, an individual allegedly emerged from a white van parked next to his car and also behaved strangely.

Different media picked up on this story, brought in experts and released a CCTV image showing the suspicious couple. Recognizing themselves in the screenshot, Sadie and Eddie Martinez rushed to the authorities to firmly refute Katie Sorensen’s accusations. “She wanted to build her audience. She was looking to make content for her name and her income, at our expense,” Sadie Martinez testified to Good Morning America.

Bail for the 30-year-old has been set at $100,000 and the date of her sentence is not yet known. The Californian’s lawyer claimed that his client had not lied to the police but that she had “misinterpreted and misperceived a series of events”. It is clear that he failed to convince the jury.

(joc)