A woman who he falsely accused a black teenager of stealing her phone and then attacked her She was arrested Thursday at a New York City hotel in her home state of California. Miya Ponsetto, 22, was jailed in Ventura County, the sheriff’s office reported. It was not immediately clear what charges he could face.
The New York City Police Department flew detectives to California earlier Thursday with a Ponsetto arrest warrant. The trip was followed by days of intense media coverage of hotel failures and the demand of the teen’s family and activists to face criminal charges.
Ponsetto’s lawyer, Sharen Ghatan, told The Associated Press in an interview before the arrest that his client was “emotionally ill” and regretted his Dec. 26 clash with 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. at the Arlo Hotel in Manhattan.
Ghatan told CBS New York that the incident had no racial reasons.
The teen’s father, jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold, recorded the showdown and put the video online.
In her video, a restless woman is seen demanding the teenager’s phone, claiming she stole it. A hotel manager tries to intervene. On the recording you can hear Keyon Harrold telling the woman to leave her son alone. Ghatan confirmed that Ponsetto is the woman in the video.
The security video later released by the NYPD shows Ponsetto frantically grabbing the teenager as he tried to walk away from her through the hotel’s front door. He saw her grab him from behind before they both fell to the ground.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, California
Ponsetto’s missing phone had been dropped off at an Uber and the driver returned it shortly after, Keyon Harrold said.
The altercation made comparisons with cases such as that of Amy Cooper, a white woman who was accused of filing a false report to call 911 and say she was being threatened by “an African-American man” during a dispute in New York’s Central Park in May.
Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Ponsetto after seeing her driving near her home in Piru, northwest Los Angeles, said department captain Eric Buschow.
“He didn’t stop for deputies until he got to his residence” two blocks away, and then refused to get out of the car, Buschow said.
“He tried to knock on the door of one of the deputies and that’s when they arrived and took her out by force,” he said, adding that the sheriff’s office would ask county prosecutors to charge him. to resist arrest.
Ghatan said he spoke to his client Thursday before and that “I think he’s a bad person.”
He said Ponsetto “attacked” concern over the disappearance of his phone and that he had no racial motives.
“It could have been anyone,” he said.
Ghatan told CBS New York that Ponstto’s actions were induced by anxiety and not racially charged.
“He just wants the family to know that he didn’t notice, worry, or care about the other party’s race, creed, nationality, or religion. He thought that was his phone and thought that someone had it “.
Police have said they are not investigating the case as a partial incident, C BS New York points out.