SoHo Karen Arrested In Los Angeles For New York City Cell Phone Attack
Miya Ponsetto, the woman dubbed SoHo Karen and who was on the run for falsely accusing Keyon Harrold Jr., 14, for stealing her phone and assaulting him in a New York City hotel, has been arrested.
CBS News reports that Ponsetto was arrested Thursday (Jan. 7) in her home state of California in Ventura County. According to the outlet, the New York Police Department flew detectives out to California with a warrant for the 22-year-olds arrest.
“[She] did not stop for deputies until she reached her residence,” said Ventura County’s Sherriff’s Captain, Eric Buschow. “She tried to slam the door on one of the deputies and that's when they just reached in and forcibly removed her.”
Buschow says that the sheriff’s office is asking county prosecutors to charge her with resisting arrest. It is not clear what charges she might face.
A viral video on Dec. 26 showed Miya Ponsetto in the lobby of New York’s Arlo Soho hotel accusing a 14-year-old of stealing her cellphone. The child is the son of Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold Sr. The father posted the video, which showed Ponsetto screaming in the lobby and lunging at his child.
On Jan. 6, Sharen Ghatan, the Ponsetto’s attorney, told the New York Daily News, “It’s horrible, what happened. She certainly should not have done that. She has some things she has to work through with herself, control issues, anger management issues. Of course she knows that.”
Ghatan also said Ponsetto maintains the attack was not racially motivated, “She saw what she thought was her phone in another person’s hands. It could have been any person’s hands. It wasn’t a racial thing. She got anxious, she got triggered, and she lost her sense of rationale.”
New York Post reports that Ponsetto is being held without bail and will be extradited back to New York City.
