California "mom influencer" Kathleen Sorensen was sentenced to three months in jail after falsely accusing a Latino couple of trying to kidnap her children. Sorensen posted in December 2020 that the pair tried to take them from the parking lot of a Michaels craft store in Sonoma County, but surveillance footage from the scene showed she was making it up and she was ultimately convicted of knowingly making a false report of crime. Two months of the sentence will be served on home release, one month inside.
The DA, Carla Rodriguez, said the verdict against and prison sentence for Sorensen held her "accountable for her crime".
"Our hope is that this measure … will help provide some closure to the couple that was falsely accused of having attempted to kidnap two young children," Rodriguez added.
Sorensen's defense attorney, Charles Dresrow, could not immediately be reached for comment. He had previously told Good Morning America that his client "misperceived and misunderstood a series of random events, which were occurring around her, and a made an honest report to the police".
"I don't think she had any understanding of how this would spread and the impact it would cause," Dresrow said.
Judge Laura Passaglia also banned her from social media and posted a standing warrant to seize and search her electronic devices at any time, so there is evidently not much hope that it won't happen again.
The Dec 2020 posting was an outstanding example of the genre.
Sorensen describing how the couple had trailed her into the store, commented on her children's appearances and gave her the "heebie-jeebies" because they were not "clean-cut individuals"
