Imperfect Paradise: People vs. Karen Part 3

Antonia Cereijido  00:00

[music in] This is Imperfect Paradise: People Versus Karen, Part 3. The story of a Latino couple who was falsely accused of a crime by a so-called Karen, and their quest to hold her accountable.

Sadie Martinez  00:17

The level of what she did to us, the level of hate and racism in 2020 when this happened is unacceptable.

Antonia Cereijido  00:26

I'm your host, Antonia Cereijido. [music out]

Antonia Cereijido  00:28

[music in] On the last episode, we heard about the connection between a QAnon-linked campaign that uses the hashtag #SavetheChildren and stranger danger among white parents.

Katie Sorensen  00:49

[audio clip] My purpose in sharing this is to simply raise awareness.

Stephanie McNeal  00:54

Like I think that moms were going to Michael's or Target, and they were legitimately afraid that their children were going to be kidnapped at any moment.

Sadie Martinez  01:03

If you had picked a different couple, you might have gotten away with this, but unfortunately, you picked us and I'm not letting it go.

Antonia Cereijido  01:13

After an investigation, Sonoma County District Attorney charged Katie Sorensen with three counts of false reporting of a crime. Now in part three of our series...

Emily Guerin  01:22

[voice memo clip] So today is day one of the Katy Sorensen trial, and I'm actually walking in right behind Katie and her husband. I recognize her from her video that she made.

Antonia Cereijido  01:35

This is LAist correspondent, Emily Guerin, heading into the courthouse in Santa Rosa on April 18th, 2023. [music out]

Emily Guerin  01:41

[voice memo clip] She is wearing all beige, brown shoes, tan pants. She has a beige handbag. Her husband's wearing a blue button down and blue pants and a notebook. And we are all walking up to the courthouse right now to start the first day of the trial.

Antonia Cereijido  02:06

By this point, it's been over two years since Katie Sorensen falsely accused Sadie and Eddie Martinez of trying to kidnap her kids. And now finally, the trial is about to begin. Emily takes it from here.

Emily Guerin  02:22

When I got inside the courthouse, I saw Sadie Martinez sitting on a chair in the long loud hallway, and I went over to say, Hi.

Sadie Martinez  02:29

[courthouse ambi] I'm a little nervous. Um, I've never had to do anything like this before, so it's, my anxiety is a little um, up there. But um, it's important for the people to hear the truth and for her to be held accountable.

Emily Guerin  02:43

How'd you decide what to wear?

Sadie Martinez  02:45

Um, I don't know. I feel like a dress always just is a go-to, so I threw a nice little- it's a Target dress. [laughs] And my Target boots, nice little denim jacket.

Emily Guerin  02:55

Could you sleep very much last night?

Sadie Martinez  02:57

I did not sleep at all.

Emily Guerin  02:58

You didn't sleep at all?

Sadie Martinez  02:59

I have hives.

Emily Guerin  03:00

You have hives. Oh my God, Sadie.

Sadie Martinez  03:02

Yeah.

Emily Guerin  03:03

Sadie was taking the stand today.

Emily Guerin  03:05

What are you planning on saying?

Sadie Martinez  03:07

Just, this didn't happen. Um, we don't know Katie, never saw her before. None of this really ever happened.

Emily Guerin  03:16

[music in] The thing about this case is that what's actually on trial is not the thing most people heard about. It's not about Katie's Instagram video. This case is only about what Katie said to the police. She has been charged with three counts of false reporting of a crime, one for each of her interactions with the Petaluma police department. So the question is, did she fabricate her story? Or did she truly believe her kids were in danger? And if so, was it reasonable for her to feel afraid? In other words, it's Katie's emotional state that's on trial. A white woman's feelings. From LAist Studios, this is Imperfect Paradise: People Versus Karen, Part 3. I'm Emily Guerin. [music out]

Emily Guerin  04:09

The trial took place in the Sonoma County Superior Court, which is about 20 miles north of Petaluma. It's a big beige cube on a street called Administration Drive, which is kind of like an industrial park for government buildings. Each judge gets their own courtroom and courtroom 10 was Judge Laura Passaglia's. As we waited to be let inside that first morning, I tried to figure out who was who. There were the jurors with their little blue laminated name tags off by themselves. There were the lawyers in suits and ties. There were bailiffs in Sheriff's uniforms. There was a reporter for the local paper, the Press Democrat. There were eight people who I presumed to be Katie's family all huddled at the end of the hallway. And then there was this woman standing next to me who I really couldn't place. Her name was Melanie Verdusco.

Emily Guerin  04:55

So what brought you here today?

Melanie Verdusco  04:57

I have just been following the case and I, I'm just dying of curiosity to know what her defense is. I can't understand what it could be, um so I had to see for myself in person. [Emily: Okay, so...]

Emily Guerin  05:11

Melanie snuck out of work to be here. It seems like a lot of people in the area were following this trial.

Emily Guerin  05:17

So tell me sort of going back like, what did you first think when you saw Katie's video?

Melanie Verdusco  05:23

So when I first saw her video, I was like, Oh my God, that's my town. You know, I know exactly where that happened. Um, but the things she was saying were so hard for me to believe as a mother. Usually people don't assume like a pretty blonde lady is gonna make up a story about people trying to kidnap her kids. So people were quick to believe her but yeah, I just didn't.

Emily Guerin  05:46

How much do you feel like it really like, kind of like made its way around town?

Melanie Verdusco  05:49

Oh, I mean it- everybody knows about it. We call her Kidnap Katie. [Emily: You do?] Yes. So hashtag #kidnapKatie for everything I've ever posted about it. You know, like Barbecue Becky? [Emily: Right.] Yeah. So she's Kidnap Katie.

Emily Guerin  06:06

And then the courtroom door opened. [music in] The judge had denied my request to record so I turned off my phone and I took out a small notebook and pen. The courtroom was pretty small. There were two rows of seats in the back, maybe 30 people total could fit. The lawyers sat in the middle of the room, and Katie Sorensen sat to their right. The jury sat on the left. There were eight men, four women, mostly older and all white except for one Asian man. Sitting in front of everybody was the judge, Laura Passaglia. She was in her mid-40s and had long blonde hair that she wore in a ponytail over her black robe. The trial began with the prosecutor's opening statement. [music out] His name was Robert Waner. He wore a dark suit and kept his salt and pepper hair slicked back, and he spoke in a calculated manner. He faced the jury and told them essentially, Look, nothing that Katie said happened actually happened. As the evidence will show, there was no attempted kidnapping. Katie was an aspiring influencer who fabricated a sensational story to go viral, so she could gain followers and sell them things. In Katie's report to the police, she focused heavily on Eddie Martinez's appearance, and her fake story had a devastating effect on him and his wife, Sadie. Find her guilty. And then it was defense attorney Charles Dresow's turn. He was boyish looking with strawberry blonde hair, and he spoke so quietly, I had to lean in to hear him at times. Dresow reminded the jury that this incident took place in late 2020, peak COVID. He said that Katie was extremely anxious at Michael's that day, so she misinterpreted Sadie and Eddie's behavior as threatening. He said Katie did not knowingly file a false police report. She really believed she was in danger, although she now realizes she was wrong. Find her not guilty. What struck me immediately was that both the prosecution and the defense agreed that no attempted kidnapping had ever happened. Sadie and Eddie were completely innocent. Now the question was: Had Katie lied? And could the prosecutor convince the entire jury of that beyond a reasonable doubt? That's coming up on Imperfect Paradise: People Versus Karen. I'm Emily Guerin. [break]

Emily Guerin  08:33

You're listening to Imperfect Paradise. I'm Emily Guerin. The first piece of evidence that prosecutor Robert Waner presented in Katie Sorensen's criminal trial were recordings of Katie's three interactions with the Petaluma Police Department. He began by playing her initial call to dispatch on December 7th, 2020.

Katie Sorensen  08:52

[audio clip] I just at the Michael's here in Petaluma, and a couple tried to kidnap my children.

Emily Guerin  08:59

Then, we listened to her follow-up interview with a Petaluma police officer.

Brendan McGovern  09:03

[audio clip] If you were presented photos of any of these people, would you be able to recognize them? [Katie: Yes.] Okay...

Emily Guerin  09:10

And finally, her conversation with two officers at her house a week later.

Katie Sorensen  09:15

[audio clip] So 100% they reached for my stroller. 100% they were saying things that they shouldn't have been saying about my kids.

Emily Guerin  09:24

The jurors followed along reading the transcripts, while the rest of us strained to hear the extremely quiet audio. And then the first witness took the stand. Sadie Martinez. [music in] She walked in, raised her right hand and promised to tell the truth. She started out giving serious one word answers but after a few minutes, she began to crack a few jokes. The prosecutor asked if Sadie had noticed Katie in the store. Sadie said no. She has five kids and she totally zones children out. People in the courtroom laughed. Seriously though, she said, the shopping trip had been totally ordinary. She could barely remember it. But now, because of Katie's viral video, "We are forever labeled child abductors," Sadie said. "Katie judged us on our looks alone and it's not okay." [music out]

Emily Guerin  10:16

The prosecutor then asked Sadie if she identifies as Latina, and whether she felt Katie had racially profiled them. Sadie said, Yes. I glanced over at Katie. She was watching Sadie, her face totally blank. Because Sadie was a witness, she wasn't allowed to be in the courtroom for anything except her own testimony, which meant she wasn't able to see her husband Eddie testify the next day. [music in] When Eddie Martinez took the stand on day two of the trial, the prosecutor unveiled a new piece of evidence, surveillance video. There was video from inside Michael's, and from the parking lot. I had never seen this surveillance video before. So it was really fascinating to see what actually happened and just how close Sadie and Eddie and Katie had all been to each other. So here's what the video shows: [music out] It shows Sadie and Eddie walking into Michael's three minutes before Katie. Sadie's in a purple coat and Eddie is in his Black Lives Matter hoodie. It shows the Martinezes standing in the checkout line right behind Katie, and by right behind, I mean six feet away, because they were on their little social distancing markers. It shows them paying at the same time at two different registers, their backs to each other. Eddie glances over his shoulder in Katie's direction, and then he just so happens to walk out of the store right behind her. They go to their respective cars and Katie pops the back hatch. She and her kids are behind the car, out of view of the security camera. At this point, Eddie and Sadie walk towards Katie. As they pass behind her car, they stop for two seconds. Then they walk back towards their car, and then they double back towards Katie. There are three seconds where Sadie and Eddie are out of view, behind Katie's car. Those three seconds are crucial to this trial. That is when Katie claimed that Eddie tried to grab her stroller. Here she is talking to the police on December 14th, 2020 on her back porch.

Katie Sorensen  12:17

[audio clip] That part, without a shadow of a doubt, that is what was happening. There is no, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to someone taking steps forward and reaching. That is without a shadow of a doubt.

Emily Guerin  12:28

The police had pressed her on this point multiple times. Was she sure that Eddie's intention was to grab her stroller? Here's officer Brendan McGovern.

Brendan McGovern  12:37

[audio clip] Is there any possibility that the action that you saw of him possibly reaching was, was him- giggling or waving at your child?

Katie Sorensen  12:45

My child was facing me, so [BM: Okay.] there's no way. There was no child facing him.

Brendan McGovern  12:48

And so you- It looked as though he was possibly reaching for the stroller?

Katie Sorensen  12:51

Yes, and they- I- There is no excuse. I would love to hear if there is a one for taking a few steps forward towards the stroller, a few steps back, [BM: Yeah.] a few steps forward.

Emily Guerin  13:00

But there actually was another explanation, an excuse, as Katie put it. [music in] As Eddie explained on the witness stand, after going to Michael's he told Sadie he was hungry. So they started walking towards this Chinese restaurant because he wanted potstickers and crab Rangoon. They took a few steps in that direction, and then Sadie looked at her phone and realized it was only 10:30 in the morning. The restaurant wasn't open yet. Eddie was bummed and he made a big sweeping "aw shucks" kind of hand gesture. This hand gesture, which again came out of disappointment for the lack of Chinese food, is what Katie interpreted as Eddie trying to grab her stroller. Katie's lawyer had Eddie demonstrate this gesture over and over. He even had him stand up so the jury could get a better look. "Aw man," Eddie said repeatedly, and people in the courtroom laughed. [music out] Afterwards, I caught up with him and Sadie in the parking lot, and he re-enacted it for me.

Eddie Martinez  14:00

So we started walking towards the Chinese spot and you told me, uh, Hey, it's too early. They're closed. And then that's when I, I made that gesture. You know, I put my hands up and went, "Ah man." I was like, [Sadie: This is who he is.] Oh, they're closed. Oh, man. You know?

Emily Guerin  14:16

It was clear to me that this case was about how a white woman had interpreted the body language of a Latino man with a shaved head in a Black Lives Matter hoodie. But now I was realizing it could hinge on a single gesture. Katie found Eddie's hand movement threatening, so she called the police. Day two ended with the former police lieutenant Ed Crosby taking us through the surveillance video again, frame by frame, using a wooden pointer stick. It was long and tedious and I saw one juror had fallen asleep. I went home tired.

Emily Guerin  14:50

[music in] [voice memo clip] Hello, hello. So it's day three of the Katie Sorensen trial. This morning, I'm pretty sure we're gonna start out with Lieutenant Ed Crosby on the witness stand again...

Emily Guerin  15:08

The third day of the trial was a deep dive into Katie's social media profile. The goal, it seemed, was to flush out her alleged motive, the whole "Katie is an influencer, who made up a wild story to gain followers" theory. The prosecutor called up a PowerPoint that was kind of a highlight reel of Katie's posts to Instagram and Facebook during 2020, and he asked Lieutenant Crosby to read through them. And just picture this scene: A big man with a handlebar mustache is describing these whimsical pictures of Katie blowing flower petals at the camera, or Katie wearing a t-shirt that says, "Roar like a mother," while Katie sits 15 feet from him, stone-faced. [music out] As the prosecutor clicked through the slides, there were a lot of pictures of the essential oils and cosmetics and supplements that Katie sold through her business, Motherhood Essentials. There were comments she made on other people's posts, saying things like, "I'm looking for any way I can to make some money to pay for my son's homeschooling program." Or: "I'm looking to focus more on consulting, influencing --eek --for clean living." I watched Katie watch herself on screen, this humiliating, incomplete portrait of her. She had been expressionless the whole time. But now, she took off her glasses and started to cry. [music in] The last slide of the presentation was an Instagram post of Katie standing in front of a theater matinee, holding a sign that said, "Let's be the generation that ends child trafficking." Lieutenant Crosby read the photo caption: "Slavery still exists... #SavetheChildren." At this point, mid-afternoon during day three of the trial, prosecutor Robert Waner said he was done presenting evidence. It was now Katie's lawyer's turn to call his witnesses to the stand, and he had just one: Katie Sorensen. [music out]

Emily Guerin  17:05

[voice memo clip] So we're on a 15 minute break from court right now. Um, I'm just standing out in the hallway. And um, Katie has just been on the witness stand. Hold on one second. I have to stop talking when the jurors walk by. Let me go somewhere else.

Emily Guerin  17:35

I walked over to a corner of the hallway near this weird little historical diorama that had 150-year-old handcuffs so nobody in the jury could overhear me making my little voice memo.

Emily Guerin  17:45

[voice memo clip] Okay. So Katie has been on the witness stand. The prosecution is done calling w-...

Emily Guerin  17:49

[music in] Katie's testimony was by far the most riveting part of the trial. She hadn't spoken publicly since the week she posted her Instagram video more than two years ago. When she took the stand, she had her hair down and her tortoiseshell glasses on. She looked over at the jury and smiled and introduced herself as a mother. Over the course of the next half hour or so, she reiterated three main points. One: she truly believed her kids had been in danger that day at Michael's. Two: her feelings of fear had nothing to do with Sadie and Eddie's race or ethnicity. And three: she's since realized she was wrong about what happened.

Emily Guerin  18:42

[voice memo clip] She said, quote, "It was an odd series of coincidental events that I misinterpreted." And um, basically, she no longer thinks that anybody tried to kidnap her kids. And that once she saw the evidence of what had actually happened in Michael's that day, she changed her mind.

Emily Guerin  18:49

In my notebook, I wrote the phrase, "an odd series of coincidental events that I misinterpreted." I circled it and drew a star. Now, it was prosecutor Robert Waner's turn to cross-examine Katie. [music out] The room was tense. Katie's mom was sniffling and Katie's husband was bent over scribbling in a notepad. The prosecutor began with three straightforward questions. Eddie never tried to abduct your children, correct? Yes, Katie said. Sadie never tried to abduct your children, correct? Yes. You were wrong about that. Yes. The prosecutor then spent the next few minutes scrutinizing Katie's mental health the day she went to Michael's, which was Katie's explanation for why she had misinterpreted Sadie and Eddie's behavior as threatening. She said she was anxious because of COVID. He asked her if she had been treated for anxiety around that time, if she'd had a panic attack or if she was taking drugs or alcohol. She said no to everything. Then the prosecutor switched to asking her about being an influencer, a term Katie said she did not identify with. But she agreed that her goal had been to build an online business where she could work from home while also taking care of her kids. She also agreed that she was trying to boost her followers in order to sell more products. Then came one of the more tortured exchanges of the entire trial. I described it afterwards sitting in my car.

Emily Guerin  20:12

[voice memo clip] You know, he said, like, Why did you say Eddie looked rough-looking? And her attorney was like, objection. And then the judge overruled that. And she said, "the manner in which he carried himself throughout the store," and then the prosecutor said, "but you were moving around the store on the same way, right, like going up and down the aisles?" And she said, "Yes."

Emily Guerin  20:36

It was Eddie's demeanor, not his appearance that was "rough-looking," Katie later explained. The prosecutor had asked Sadie Martinez earlier if she felt Katie's accusation was racially motivated, but he never asked Katie directly if she racially profiled Sadie and Eddie. Instead, Robert Waner honed in on the "Katie is an influencer, who did it for the clicks" theory. At the end of Katie's testimony, both sides rested their case. The judge dismissed us for the weekend, and I walked out into the sunshine and took notes in my car.

Emily Guerin  21:08

[voice memo clip] It's day four of the Katie Sorensen trial. It's Tuesday. And this morning, the district attorney and Katie's lawyer are going to present their closing statements. Okay, I'm gonna turn off my mic because I'm going inside. [sound of mic turning off]

Emily Guerin  21:29

The prosecutor went first. Robert Waner stood directly in front of the jury and told them that Katie Sorensen was guilty. He said that she fabricated this entire story because she was an influencer who was trying to boost her online presence. And he said she doubled down when confronted by the police on December 14th, the day after she posted her video.

Emily Guerin  21:49

[voice memo clip] But he said that it's basically impossible that she misinterpreted events. He said, "No reasonable or unreasonable person would have interpreted the events in the manner in which she did. That's a person who's hallucinating." He said this report was false. She knew it was false. She lied to the dispatcher. She lied to Officer McGovern. She lied to all of her Instagram followers. She lied to KTVU News, and she lied to us. And that was the last thing he said.

Emily Guerin  22:20

Then it was Katie's attorney Charles Dresow's turn. He opened this binder that contained many pages printed in a large size font. He spoke for almost an hour and he even went into the history of reasonable doubt back to medieval times. He asked the jury if you think there is any chance that Katie could have concluded that someone tried to kidnap her kids that day in Michael's, then you must find her not guilty. And then he took the jury through why he thought it was reasonable for her to feel like her kids were in danger. He dwelled in particular on Eddie's big, sweeping hand gesture. He said that Katie, in her heightened state of COVID anxiety, certainly could have misinterpreted this gesture as Eddie trying to grab her stroller.

Emily Guerin  23:02

[voice memo clip] And he ended by saying, you know, two things could be true at once. It's true that there was no attempted kidnapping. But it's also true that a series of random and coincidental events did occur that caused Katie to misinterpret the events and come to the wrong conclusion. And then he said to the jury, if you have a reasonable doubt right now, you must acquit her.

Emily Guerin  23:22

[music in] The lawyer sat down and I noted the time in my notebook: 2:56 PM. The judge gave the jurors instructions on how to deliberate. She told them that in order to find Katie guilty, they had to unanimously agree beyond a reasonable doubt that she had knowingly lied to the police. Each time she spoke to the police was to be a separate decision. And then the jury stood and filed out a special door in the back of the courtroom. The rest of us walked out into the bright empty hallway. [music out] I had thought this case was going to be kind of a reckoning on so-called Karens. Instead, the prosecution had turned it into a referendum on influencers gone wrong. I asked Robert Waner's boss, District Attorney Carla Rodriguez, why they didn't bring up race more during the trial.

Carla Rodriguez  24:18

So her language wasn't racially based during the police investigations and her Instagram posts. So we could all assume different things based on what Eddie might have been wearing or what Sadie looked like, but none of that can be proven in court. So he just stuck to the evidence.

Emily Guerin  24:37

Katie told police that Eddie was "maybe Hispanic." She said Sadie was white. She used words like "not clean cut" and "rough looking." So even though lots of people on the internet had immediately jumped to label Katie as racist, the prosecution never addressed racism head on. If Katie was a "Karen," the prosecution didn't think it could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Carla Rodriguez  25:00

There wasn't enough information anywhere to prove a hate crime or something else. It was making a false report to a police officer, and that has very specific elements. Nothing related to race is required to prove that that crime was committed.

Emily Guerin  25:17

But had the prosecution proved that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt? I thought Katie's lawyer had done a pretty good job making the case that this "series of odd coincidences" as he put it, had legitimately frightened Katie. I was starting to think that she might not get convicted of all three charges. But would she get off entirely? I bought some peanut M&Ms from this sad vending machine, drove home and came back the next day.

Emily Guerin  25:42

[music in] [voice memo clip] It's day five. I'm standing in the hallway outside the courtroom and this morning at 10 AM, the jury started deliberating and I have no idea how long that is going to take. [music plays] So it's now noon. The jury has been deliberating for two hours this morning. [music plays] So it's 2:28 PM, and I just saw the bailiff walk back into the courtroom, uh followed by Katie's lawyer, and um, Katie's entire family suddenly got up and they walked towards the door, and I saw Katie's mom hug Katie. I think they might have been praying. They all had their heads down in a circle. Here comes the district attorney, Bob Waner. So I think we're about to find out what happened.

Emily Guerin  26:41

That's coming up after a break. You're listening to Imperfect Paradise. [music out]

Emily Guerin  26:54

This is Imperfect Paradise. I'm Emily Guerin. By mid-afternoon, on the fifth day of the trial, the jury had reached a verdict. The bailiffs opened the courtroom door, and we all sat down. The jurors walked in. One of the four women on the jury handed the judge a manila envelope. The judge opened it and passed it to her clerk. The room was totally silent. I looked over at Katie's family. They were clasping each other's hands. Katie stepfather's head was bowed, eyes closed as the clerk began to read out the verdict. [music in] The first count was Katie's initial phone call to a police dispatcher on December 7th, 2020. [police dispatcher: ...reporting an emergency?] The one she'd placed from her car as she drove away from Michael's.

Katie Sorensen  27:42

[audio clip] I was just at the Michael's here in Petaluma, and a couple tried to kidnap my children.

Emily Guerin  27:47

The one where she'd said that two "rough looking" people had tried to kidnap her kids. The verdict? Not guilty. Katie's husband started crying. The second count was Katie's conversation with Officer Brendan McGovern outside the Petaluma police station, [audio clip of Officer McGovern talking in background] the one where she'd joked that her kids are very good looking.

Katie Sorensen  28:07

[audio clip] I might be biased but my kids are very good looking...

Emily Guerin  28:10

The verdict? Not guilty. I heard more sniffling from the direction of Katie's family. The third count was Katie's conversation with the police at her house on December 14th, the day after she posted her video, the one where she'd bounced and rocked her son, the one where she'd waffled between doubting and doubling down on her story. The verdict? Guilty.

Emily Guerin  28:41

Katie's family seemed stunned. [music out] No one did or said anything. Katie was totally expressionless. The bailiff walked over and she stood while he put black metal handcuffs on her. The judge set Katie's bail at $100,000 which was pretty high for a nonviolent misdemeanor. She was escorted down to the Sonoma County Jail, where I later learned she sat for a few hours until her family could get a bail bond. Her sentencing hearing was set for June 14th. The judge thanked the jurors for their service and dismissed the courtroom. In the hallway, Katie's mom, Jill Turgeon-Turrill, and her mom's husband, Eric, walked straight over to me and a reporter named Colin Atagi, who works for the local paper, the Press Democrat. "Do you want a statement now," Jill said, combative. I started recording on my phone as Colin asked Jill a question.

Colin Atagi  29:31

[audio clip] How are you guys doing right now?

Jill Turgeon-Turrill  29:34

Well, I, I guess a little bit confused.

Emily Guerin  29:36

Jill had tears in her eyes. And she seemed furious the jury hadn't interpreted the evidence the way she had.

Emily Guerin  29:36

[audio clip] So you feel it was un- unfair, it sounds like.

Jill Turgeon-Turrill  29:41

Well, I, I feel like the evidence was not portrayed properly.

Colin Atagi  29:50

Uh, you want to talk about what we kind of discussed earlier about how the effect this has had on your family, you know.

Jill Turgeon-Turrill  29:56

Oh, it's significant. I mean, we are not a wealthy family by any means. Um, I mentioned to him earlier. Um, [crying] I am a widow. My late husband passed away about three years ago and 100% of his life insurance is what has funded this, this trial. This is not something that is easy for us. We have received so many hate mails. We [CA: Death threats.] have received death threats. We have, telling us that our daughter should kill herself, uh, mentioning that um, her, her dad should be ashamed of her and he's rolling over in his grave. They have, they have criticized her mothering of her special needs child. They have- It's just- [Eric: Gone after our grandkids.] It's just, it's, it's absolutely atrocious. And we have never once, ever once said anything negative about anybody in this case. So it's taken a huge toll.

Colin Atagi  30:49

How was Katie doing up until this very minute?

Emily Guerin  30:51

Like her emotional state?

Colin Atagi  30:52

Yeah, yeah. Like how has this affected her?

Jill Turgeon-Turrill  30:53

She's been very strong. She's been very strong. And she's continued her positive attitude, not only towards the system, but also towards the Martinez family. She has never had any animosity towards them. In fact, she has felt that she- they have been just as much a victim in this as she has.

Emily Guerin  31:09

Thank you. [Jill: All right.] [CA: Thank you.]

Emily Guerin  31:11

[music in] Not long after, I got a call from Sadie. Remember, she wasn't allowed in the courtroom, but she'd just found out the verdict.

Emily Guerin  31:24

Can you hear me? [Sadie: Yes.] Okay. Um, so how are you feeling?

Sadie Martinez  31:35

Um, I'm happy. I'm happy with the outcome. I feel like she will learn from this horrible decision and many other people too.

Emily Guerin  31:46

So you're happy even though she got uh, even though she got off on the first two counts?

Sadie Martinez  31:51

Yes. As long as she was found guilty in some fashion. Um, yes.

Emily Guerin  31:58

Sadie was extremely calm. She seemed almost removed from her emotions.

Emily Guerin  32:03

Interesting, because I wasn't sure what you were going to think, honestly.

Sadie Martinez  32:07

Well, obviously, I would prefer her to have been found guilty on all three counts, but um no, as long as she's held accountable in some fashion, that was all I really cared about, because I don't think she's ever gonna find any kind of remorse if she is not held accountable. So to be found guilty, at least on one count is, is okay with me. [music out]

Emily Guerin  32:38

[voice memo clip] So it is June 29th. I'm back in Sonoma County. I'm walking to the courthouse in Santa Rosa. And this morning is the sentencing hearing for Katie Sorensen.

Emily Guerin  32:51

Katie's sentencing hearing was delayed two weeks and by the time I went back to the courthouse, it had been two months since the verdict. We all walked in and took our familiar seats in the back row of the courtroom facing Judge Passaglia. Sadie and Eddie were there, too. It all happened pretty quickly. Each side argued for what they thought Katie's sentence should be. Sadie stood up and read a short victim's impact statement, saying essentially that if Katie had apologized and shown remorse, that would have been enough for her. But she didn't. And so Sadie was looking for some accountability. And then the judge decided. Katie was sentenced to 30 days in jail, followed by 60 days of work release, and then she'd be on probation for the next nine months. During that time, she couldn't use social media and she had to take racial bias and social media ethics training. I looked over and I saw Sadie and Eddie holding hands. Eddie was looking down audibly sniffling. But Sadie had her head held high. She wiped her eyes once. Katie stood and once again allowed herself to be handcuffed. We all left the courtroom and the bailiff walked her down the hallway towards the jail.

Emily Guerin  34:08

[sound of recorder turning on] I'm recording by the way.

Sadie Martinez  34:12

Um, talk about an emotional day.

Emily Guerin  34:15

I met up with Sadie, Eddie and their friend Kinyatta Reynolds outside the courthouse. We stood in the shade of a big oak tree. There was construction going on next door, so it was a little bit loud.

Emily Guerin  34:26

I saw you guys crying a little when the sentence came out. I'm not gonna lie.

Sadie Martinez  34:29

It was emotional. It, it was, it was like-

Eddie Martinez  34:31

I, I cry with watching The Lion King. I'm emotional.

Emily Guerin  34:35

I hadn't seen you cry.

Sadie Martinez  34:36

No. I cry when I get mad. I, I don't cry very often. And it was emotional. I mean, it's been a long two and a half years.

Emily Guerin  34:43

Eddie, how were you feeling when you heard the sentence?

Eddie Martinez  34:45

A sense of relief um, and sadness at the same time. Reason being relief that justice was served for us. Uh, the judge made a clear example of um, you know, if you choose to take Katie's path in any way or fashion that look what the outcome could be. The other part was sadness. Being a parent, to have someone be away from their kids for so long. They didn't ask for this, and now to go what, 30 days? And wondering, Where's mom? Where the hell is mom? You know, I, I don't wish that upon anybody. So that's my sadness on all this.

Emily Guerin  35:05

So you didn't, you didn't want her to go to jail?

Eddie Martinez  35:38

Uh, no. I did. I would have been happy with five days, three days. I would have been satisfied with that, because she does have kids, you know, and maybe that would have taught her and she could have learned that, Hey, I can't do this.

Emily Guerin  35:55

I later saw the pre-sentencing report that the probation department had made. They had asked Sadie what she thought Katie's sentence should be. Sadie had said, up to 30 days.

Sadie Martinez  36:06

Do I feel bad for her children? Yes. But somebody's gonna learn from this. If, if it's not her, it'll be somebody else. Somebody will see this and say, Hey, you know, think twice before you post some crazy lies on, online.

Emily Guerin  36:23

Because of California's sentencing guidelines for nonviolent misdemeanors, Katie only served half of her sentence and spent two weeks in jail. I asked Sadie and Eddie if they were disappointed that the prosecutor didn't bring up race more during the trial. I knew that Sadie really wanted Katie to be held accountable for what she felt was an obvious case of racial profiling. And that hadn't really happened.

Sadie Martinez  36:46

Originally in the beginning, I was really bothered by it. But no, I kind of understand how the legal system works. And I have a better understanding for it now. And it's all about what you can prove. There's no need to convince anybody that anything is racial when you live it. I mean, we know and as long as we know, and we're the ones experiencing it, it's not our job to educate everybody else and constantly speak on it. I know it's about race, and that's enough for me.

Emily Guerin  37:10

[music in] In early 2021, after Katie's Instagram video came out, Sadie was asked to join a police reform commission in Petaluma. She proposed a law that would make it a crime to make a racially motivated 911 call. Laws like this already exists in a handful of other cities, including San Francisco. Their law is called the "Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies," aka the CAREN Act.

Sadie Martinez  37:41

Being able to call the police and report a false crime about a person of color should be a crime.

Emily Guerin  37:49

Sadie's initial proposal didn't go anywhere. But now that Katie has been found guilty, Sadie wants to try again. She's planning on gathering signatures for a petition in support of a local version of the CAREN Act, which she's calling the Sadie Stance. [music out]

Emily Guerin  38:09

With Katie in jail, Sadie's #prosecuteKatie campaign is over. Her Tik Tok account, which she started to keep people updated on the case, has switched over to videos of her eating hot pot and walking on the treadmill. A week after the verdict, Sadie posted a triumphant video of herself in selfie mode. Her hair's up in a ponytail, her makeup's all done. She's got a drink in her hand and she's staring directly into the camera with a fierce look in her eyes. This Snoop Dogg song is playing. [music in: Snoop Dogg- "Last but not least, I want to thank me. I want to thank me for believing in me. I want to thank me for doing all this hard work. I want to thank...]

Emily Guerin  38:54

Sadie captioned her video, "if you know, you know, #KatieSorensen." For Sadie, getting to where she is now took perseverance. Here's what she told me after the verdict came out.

Sadie Martinez  39:08

We fought hard for this. So it's nice to know that your, our hard work paid off. [Emily: Yeah.] I had to put myself out there. It wasn't easy.

Emily Guerin  39:18

Yeah, I mean you were on a campaign for years.

Sadie Martinez  39:20

Yeah, I was. I was, I was not gonna let this go. And you know, she wanted a, a free pass and not today, Katie. Not today.

Antonia Cereijido  39:30

[music in] On the next episode of Imperfect Paradise, we dive deeper into the argument made by the prosecutor in this case that Katie was a momfluencer gone wrong. What is the history of mom influencing and how did it become such a loaded term?

Sara Petersen  39:54

What started as a sort of vulnerable speaking truth to motherhood sort of thing has turned into a shiny picture perfect version of motherhood.

Antonia Cereijido  40:07

That's on the final episode of Imperfect Paradise: People Versus Karen. Listen to new episodes of the podcast every Wednesday, or tune in on Sunday nights at 7 PM on LAist 89.3 or LAist.com. [music out]

Antonia Cereijido  40:22

[music in] This episode of Imperfect Paradise was written and reported by Emily Guerin. I'm the show's host, Antonia Cereijido. Catherine Mailhouse is the Executive Producer of the show, and Shana Naomi Krochmal is our Vice President of Podcasts. Rebecca Katz is our intern and the producer of this series. James Chow provided additional production. Jens Campbell is our Production Coordinator. The editor of this series is Sarah Kate Kramer. Fact checking by Caitlin Antonios. Mixing and theme music by E. Scott Kelly. The Imperfect Paradise team also includes Natalie Chudnovsky and Emma Alabaster. Thank you to Kristen Muller, Megan Garvey, Tony Marcano, Sabir Brara, Kristen Hayford, and Leo G. Imperfect Paradise is a production of LAist Studios. This podcast is powered by listeners like you donating as little as $5 a month, and we can only keep making more episodes like this one with your partnership. Support the show by donating now at LAist.com/join. This podcast is supported by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. LAist Studios operates within the homelands of the Gabrielino Tongva people. We recognize the painful history of displacement, settler colonialism, and erasure of the People, their language, and their sovereignty. Visit LAist.com/land for more information. We encourage you to get curious about the land on which you live and work. [music out]