Woman Who Falsely Said Black Teenager Stole Her Phone From New York Hotel Arrested In Home State Of California

A woman who falsely accused black teenage girl of stealing her phone, then attacked her in a New York City hotel, was arrested Thursday in her home state of California. Miya Ponsetto, 22, has been jailed in Ventura County, the sheriff’s office said. The charges she might face were not immediately clear.

The New York Police Department sent detectives to California earlier Thursday with an arrest warrant for Ponsetto. The trip followed days of intense media coverage of hotel crashes and demands from the teenager’s family and activists that she face criminal charges.

Ponsetto’s attorney, Sharen Ghatan, told The Associated Press in a pre-arrest interview that her client was “emotionally ill” and had remorse over his Dec. 26 conflict with 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. at the Arlo Hotel in Manhattan.

Ghatan told CBS New York that the incident was not racist.

The teenager’s father, jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold, recorded the confrontation and uploaded the video.

In her video, a restless woman is seen claiming the teenager’s phone, claiming he stole it. A hotel manager tries to intervene. Keyon Harrold can be heard in the recording telling the woman to leave her son alone. Ghatan has confirmed that Ponsetto is the woman in the video.

A security video released later by the NYPD shows Ponsetto frantically gripping the teenager as he tries to get away from her through the hotel’s front door. She saw him hugging him from behind before the two fell to the ground.

Ponsetto’s missing phone was actually left in an Uber and returned by the driver shortly thereafter, Keyon Harrold said.

The altercation drew comparisons with cases like that of Amy Cooper, a white woman accused of filing a false report for calling 911 and saying she was threatened by “an African-American man” during a conflict in Central Park in New York in May.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Ponsetto after spotting her driving near her home in Piru, northwest of Los Angeles, Captain Eric Buschow said.

She “didn’t stop for MPs until she reached her residence” two blocks away and then refused to get out of the car, Buschow said.

“She tried to slam the door on one of the deputies and that’s when they just reached her and forcibly kicked her out,” he said, adding that the sheriff’s office would ask county prosecutors to charge him with resisting arrest.

Ghatan said she spoke to her client earlier on Thursday and that “she seems like a sick person to me.”

She said Ponsetto had “castigated” his concern that his phone was missing and that he was not motivated by race.

“It could have been anyone,” she said.

Ghatan told CBS New York Ponstto that Ponstto’s actions were prompted by anxiety, not racial.

“She just wants the family to know that she didn’t notice, didn’t care about the other party’s race, creed, nationality or religion. She thought it was. her phone, and she thought someone else had it. “

Police said they were not investigating the case as a bias incident, C BS New York said.