Supporters of the black teenager who was falsely accused of stealing a white woman’s cell phone at a Manhattan hotel said on Wednesday that they plan to meet with prosecutors and demand that she be called up to a grand jury.
Rev. Al Sharpton cited a CNN report that said the unidentified woman contested official reports of the incident involving the son of jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold and said she was willing to cooperate with the authorities.
“If she says she was assaulted, put her on the grand jury, where she will be charged with perjury,” Sharpton said.
“Put her on the grand jury and let her put her hand on the Bible and take an oath.”
During a press conference in Manhattan’s City Hall Park, Sharpton observed the pending case against Amy Cooper, the “Karen of Central Park” who was falsely accused of falsely accusing a black bird watcher of threatening and attempting to attack her.
“The racial profile is a crime in New York,” he said.
Also during the press conference, Harrold’s family attorney, Ben Crump, said Sharpton had arranged a meeting for them with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Wednesday.
Harrold – who recorded a one-minute video of Saturday’s clash at the Hotel Arlo in Soho – accused the hotel manager of automatically allying himself with the woman against his 14-year-old son, Keyon Harrold Jr.
“My son was proven guilty before Chad had time to ask,” he said, using a nickname for a stereotyped white boy.
“You are doing a job. You should be doing a job. That’s when Chad failed. “
Harrold – who at one point played a solo trumpet medley from “This Land Is Your Land”, “America the Beautiful” and “We Shall Overcome” – also said that his son was not the only person accused of stealing the woman’s phone .
Harrold said that when he and Keyon Jr. left an elevator to go to brunch, “they had someone who was shaking”, but that the woman “saw my son and went red in front of a bull”.
Crump said the other person was “apparently another minority man” and suggested that the hotel was “an accomplice” in the incident involving Keyon Jr.
“We may need the New York attorney general to start a civil rights investigation,” he said.
On Tuesday, NYPD chief investigators, Rodney Harrison, said police officers reclassified the woman’s investigation, which was initially being treated as a mere harassment case.
“After we managed to get the video, we are now looking to accuse this individual of assault and maybe even look at a major theft or maybe even an attempt at theft,” said Harrison.
Harrison said that although Keyon Jr. was not injured when the woman “tried to attack him”, the older Harrold “suffered minor injuries” when he intervened.
The Arlo Hotel chain did not immediately return an email asking for comments.