Miya Ponsetto, the 22-year-old Californian who faced a black teenager and accused him of stealing her iPhone in December, was prosecuted and charged in a criminal court on Saturday in New York.
Ponsetto is accused of attempted theft, major theft, injurious behavior to a child and two counts of attempted assault, according to a statement by the public prosecutor Cyrus R. Vance Jr. obtained by The Hill.
Judge Michael Frishman granted Ponsetto a supervised release without bail. In addition, Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Keyon Harrold and his son Keyon Harrold Jr., the 14-year-old victim Ponsetto attacked, received protection orders.
Ponsetto was arrested Thursday in California for her attack on a teenager at the Arlo SoHo boutique hotel in New York City on December 26. Video footage of the incident released by police shows Ponsetto accusing Harrold of stealing his missing cell phone and then attacking him and bringing him to the ground after he informed her that she was wrong.
According to The New York Times, Ponsetto’s phone later appeared at the hotel after an Uber driver returned it.
Ponsetto was transferred to NYPD custody shortly after her arrest, during which she resisted, CBS reported.
Although she has no criminal convictions, Ponsetto has three open cases in California, said the Manhattan district attorney’s office. She will appear in court on March 29, 2021.
After the images of the meeting went viral, many accused Ponsetto, nicknamed “SoHo Karen”, of betraying Harrold’s racial profile.
On Thursday, Ponsetto’s lawyer spoke publicly about the incident, saying the teenager’s race was not a motivating factor in his actions.
“That phone could be in the hands of a 90-year-old grandmother, an Asian person … someone black or blue,” said lawyer Sharen Ghatan, according to NBC News. Her actions were the result of her allowing “her emotions to get the best of her” since she was “young”, added Ghatan.
Ghatan did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
However, during a video interview with CBS Gayle king
Gayle KingCBS News President Zirinsky wins National Press Club Fourth Estate award The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by the United Arab Emirates – the US reports 1 million COVID-19 cases in one week; governors crack down on Obama said their ‘initial instinct’ during Joe Wilson’s ’09 explosion was ‘slap this guy on the head’ MORE, Ponsetto apologized for hurting the boy’s feelings, but defended his actions.
“Racism is …” Ponsetto started to say before he stopped, adding, “How is a girl accusing a guy of a phone a crime?”
The 22-year-old woman captured by the camera allegedly physically attacking a 14-year-old black teenager and falsely accusing him of stealing his phone was arrested in California.
In an exclusive interview, Miya Ponsetto and her lawyer talked to @GayleKing hours before she was arrested. pic.twitter.com/ezaGkcWZ8j
– CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 8, 2021
Ben Crump, the civil rights activist and lawyer representing Keyon Harrold Jr., 14, previously called for a “civil rights investigation” of the incident. The police told CBS News that they are not considering the case as an incident of bias.