Sadie and Eddie Martinez were falsely accused by Katie Sorenson of trying to abduct her children in a California parking lot. Sorenson was found convicted of making a false report and has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.
The woman falsely accused by a mother of trying to kidnap her children in a parking lot tells Inside Edition she and her husband are continuing to suffer from the accusations levied at them, even after the “mom influencer” admitted to fabricating the story.
The trouble for Sadie and Eddie Martinez began when Katie Sorenson accused them of trying to abduct her children at a Michael’s craft store in Northern California in December 2020. Sorenson reported the supposed incident to authorities, as well as posted about it on Instagram. But the entire story was a lie, prosecutors said.
Sorenson was convicted in April of making a false report, a misdemeanor.
“Ms. Sorensen has been held accountable for her crime, and we believe the judge handed down a fair sentence,” Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in the statement after Sorenson's sentencing. “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.”
But Sadie and Eddie Martinez continue to deal with the repercussions of the false accusations, she tells Inside Edition. They have “been harassed online,” she says. “It’s been random things you don’t expect to deal with until somebody labels you a child abductor.”
Even their landlord turned on them, they say.
“He found a way to evict us,” she says. “We found ourselves in a bad situation.”
Sorenson was sentenced on Thursday to 90 days in jail, 60 of which authorities said could be served on a work-release program. She was also sentenced to 12 months of informal probation.
“I believe she’s in the right place,” Sadie says of Sorenson’s sentencing including jail time. But she does not believe the punishment met the crime.
“I think it should have been a hate crime originally,” she says of the case’s designation.
After Sorenson initially reported the made-up incident, the Martinezes recognized themselves on surveillance tape and came forward to say they were victims of racial profiling. An investigation cleared them of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors said the store’s surveillance video cracked the case.
