'Soho Karen' who tackled black teen over missing phone was not racist but ‘having anxiety attack’, says lawyer

Attorney for 22-year-old says attack ‘wasn’t a race related issue. Things took a life of their own’ amid calls for prosecution

A woman who wrongly accused a black teenager of stealing her iPhone was “scared” and anxious, rather than racist, her lawyer said.

Attorney Sharen Ghatan said on Tuesday that 22 year-old Miya Ponsetto had been having a “panic attack” when she accused 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. of stealing her phone in a hotel lobby. The altercation was videoed and widely condemned by social media users.

“She was a scared girl alone in a city she doesn’t know and lost her one point of contact for her numbers,“ said the attorney to NBC News. “She lost her mind for a hot minute. She is sorry.”

Ms Ghatan denied that the attack on the black teenager was due to racial motivation, and said: “It wasn’t a race related issue. Things took a life of their own.”

Ms Ponsetto, who has since been nicknamed “Soho Karen”, had been staying at the Arlo Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan, and was Christmas shopping at the time.

She was staying there at the same time as Harrold Jr. late last month when she was caught on camera tackling the teenager and screaming hysterically.  

The video was widely shared after it was uploaded to Instagram on 26 December by the teenager’s father Keyon Harold, a Grammy-award winning musician.

Mr Harrold, who is black, told TMZ on Sunday that his son was “seriously traumatised” by the allegations and needed therapy.

Many social media users meanwhile condemned Ms Ponesetto, who was then nicknamed “SoHo Karen” – a nickname used to describe white women accused of verbally abusing black people in public.

The iPhone belonging to Ms Ponsetto was later returned to her by an Uber employee, it was widely reported, because she had lost it. The teenager was not involved in any way.

Mr Harrold told the New York Times last weekend that he was “shell shocked” by the incident, and that he and his son had probably been racially profiled by Ms Ponsetto.

“I wonder what would happen if it were different, if it were a Black woman and there was a white 14-year-old,” he said.

A petition has since attracted almost 100,000 signatures, with calls to prosecute Ms Ponsetto.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who set up the petition, said on Tuesday that he hoped the district attorney for New York would listen to those calls.

According to reports, police in New York have classified the case as harassment, although the video recording could see Ms Ponsetto, a resident of California, charged with assault.  

The New York Post reported that detectives will fly from New York to Ms Ponsetto’s home in Los Angeles, California, this week, to question her. 

The Arlo Hotel, meanwhile, said in a statement to The Times last week: “We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo hotel”.

The hotel added that it was committed to “making sure this never happens again at any of our hotels”.