Miya Ponsetto, also known as “SoHo Karen,” has pled not guilty to felony hate crime charges surrounding an incident involving her attacking a Black teen at a SoHo hotel.
What We Know:
- Ponsetto, 22, attacked the 14-year-old son of Grammy-winning trumpet player Keyon Harrold at the Arlo SoHo Hotel in New York, NY. She falsely accused the teen of stealing her cellphone while in the hotel lobby. The teen repeated multiple times that he did not have Ponsetto’s phone; however, the hotel manager forced the teen to turn over his phone. Ponsetto then physically attacked the 14-year-old, and they both fell to the ground.
- Harrold recorded part of the Dec. 26th, 2020 altercation on his cellphone and posted the video to social media. Ponsetto was arrested in Piru, California, on charges of two counts of attempted assault, attempted robbery, grand larceny, and endangering the welfare of a child. Her cellphone was later found in the car of an Uber.
- “SoHo Karen” only questioned Harrold, his son and an Asian individual, about the whereabouts of her cellphone. She did not question any of the White people that passed her in the lobby or attack them the way she did the teen, causing people to believe she only went after the teen because he was Black. Ponsetto initially apologized during an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning back in January but consistently contradicted herself throughout the interview. She even wore a “Daddy” baseball cap during the interview, which both King and Ponsetto’s lawyer suggested she should remove.
- On Wednesday, Ponsetto pleads not guilty to all charges and is under a “supervised release” order. Paul D’Emilia, Ponsetto’s lawyer, criticized Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance for pursuing the charges. He believed the charges “are a brazen and clear overreach of the intent of the statute” and “are absurd, and a perversion of our legal system.” D’Emilia claimed that Vance is focused on prosecuting a young and panicked woman who lost her beloved cellphone and all that it embodies instead of going after violent criminals that run rampant in New York.
- New York has seen their share of “Karens” in the past year. In May 2020, Amy Cooper, also known as “Central Park Karen,” called 911 on Christian Cooper, no relation, accusing him of threatening her life. Christian only asked Cooper to put her dog on a leash, as they were located in The Ramble, a well-known area for bird watching with a dog on a leash policy.
- Both individuals left before police arrived, but Cooper went viral for her antics. She stated that Christian targeted her and that she wasn’t racist, yet, her former employer, investment firm Franklin Templeton, didn’t care about excuses and ended up firing her. Cooper is now suing her former employer for not fully investigating the incident prior to her termination and that they only fired her because she is a white woman.
The Harrold family filed a lawsuit against Ponsetto and Arlo hotel manager Chad Nathan for racial profiling and the effects the incident left on the teen. Their lawyer, Ben Crump, said the family would release a statement later. Ponsetto is set to return to court on October 20th.
