Miya Ponsetto: ‘Soho Karen’ charged with four felonies after attacking black teen in NYC
The woman seen in a now viral video falsely accusing and attacking a black teen in a New York City hotel for stealing her cell phone was hunted down in her home state of California, arrested and charged. She was taken into custody last week after the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office announced that 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto of Piru, California, was arrested during a traffic stop in Piru on January 7.
She did not stop for deputies until she reached her residence, and she refused to get out of the car. Deputies forcibly removed her from the vehicle and arrested her for the outstanding warrant. Ponsetto was booked at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility in Ventura, where she is being held without bail for the fugitive warrant. She will remain in local custody pending an extradition hearing. Detectives from the New York Police Department arrived in Ventura County on Thursday morning to help coordinate the arrest. ~ VCSO
Dubbed “Soho Karen” following the video of her attack, Fox News reports that Ponsetto was charged with attempted robbery immediately following her arrest. Additional charges quickly followed.
Initially, the thrust behind many of the media reports stressed that this was a racially motivated attack after Ponsetto, originally described as a white woman, went after the black teen. Ponsetto told the New York Post during a brief encounter outside a McDonald’s in Piru last week that she was Puerto Rican, which may have contributed to why she hasn’t been charged with any hate crimes.
Following her arraignment on Saturday, Ponsetto was charged with four felonies: attempted assault, endangering the welfare of a child, attempted robbery and attempted grand larceny.
The 14-year-old teen Ponsetto is accused of assaulting, is the son of jazz musician Keyon Harrold. The attack which occurred at the Arlo SoHo boutique hotel in New York City on December 26 was captured on cell phone video and quickly went viral. The child being attacked is Keyon Harrold Jr.
“The lady in this video assaulted my 14-year-old son and me as we came down from our room … to get breakfast,” Harrold wrote. The woman said she had lost her phone, and “apparently, my son magically acquired it,” Harrold wrote, calling the claim “ridiculous.” ~ MSN
Ponsetto was extradited from California back to New York for her arraignment, but returned to California on Sunday as the judge did not require her to be held or pay bail.
In interview with CBS’ Gayle King, Ponsetto denied racism was a factor in the December 26 attack on 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. The interview was taped only a few hours before Ponsetto was arrested in California. During the interview which began sweetly enough, Ponsetto admitted that she, “could’ve approached the situation differently,” adding, “I consider myself to be super sweet… I don’t feel that that’s who I am as a person.”
Ponsetto, wearing a “Daddy” baseball cap during the interview, is pressed by King about tackling Harrold, saying: “OK, I apologize. Can we move on?” She goes on to say: “I am a 22-year-old girl. I don’t… racism, uh… How is one girl accusing… a guy about a phone a crime?”
When King reminds her that Harrold did not have her phone and that she’s “old enough to know better,” Ponsetto tries to shut her down, gesturing for King to shush while saying: “Alright, Gayle. Enough.” ~ TV Line
Ponsetto doesn’t have any prior criminal convictions, “but she does face three open cases in California, all stemming from separate incidents in 2020,” according to MSN. She’s scheduled to be back in court on March 29.
If you’ve never seen the video of Ponsetto going after that teen in NYC, see below.
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
