Woman who accused Black teen of stealing phone arrested
Miya Ponsetto, 22, jailed in California
Associated Press
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This booking photo provided by Ventura County Sheriff s Office in California shows Miya Ponsetto. Ponsetto, who falsely accused a Black teenager of stealing her phone and then tackled him at a New York City hotel on Dec. 26 , 2020 was arrested Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021 in her home state of California. She was jailed in Ventura County, a spokesperson for the sheriff s office there said. It wasn t immediately clear what charges she might face. (Ventura County Sheriff s Office via AP)
NEW YORK – A woman who wrongly accused a Black teenager of stealing her phone and tackled him while being filmed at a New York City hotel apologized but defended her actions in a television interview conducted before she was arrested in California.
Miya Ponsetto s lawyer Sharen H. Ghatan says incident was not race-related
Ponsetto, 22, was dubbed SoHo Karen after she wrongly accused a black teenager of stealing her phone in at the Arlo Hotel in New York City last week
Video footage showed Ponsetto tackling Keyon Harrold Jr, 14, in the hotel lobby after she incorrectly assumed he took her phone
Ghatan claimed Ponsetto has a history of anxiety attacks and panicked after she realized her phone was missing
Ponsetto, who is from California, was traveling alone while visiting her father in New York City for Christmas and was relying on her phone for navigation
NYPD detectives to fly to California to interview SoHo Karen Miya Ponsetto over her attack on black boy, 14, she believed had stolen her iPhone
Police officers from the NYPD are to fly 2,500 miles to California in order to question the woman dubbed Soho Karen , 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto
Ponsetto is to be questioned by detectives where she may be arrested and possibly extradited back to New York depending on her answers.
Keyon Harrold Jr., 14, is said to be seeking therapy after he was tackled to the ground by Ponsetto in the Arlo Hotel in NYC on December 26
It has emerged Ponsetto was arrested on a second DUI charge in October just five days after being put on probation for her first one in May