Woman who accused Black teen of stealing phone is arrested
NEW YORK » A woman who falsely accused a Black teenager of stealing her phone and then tackled him at a New York City hotel was arrested in her home state of California.
Miya Ponsetto, 22, was jailed Thursday in Ventura County, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office there said. It wasn’t immediately clear what charges she might face.
The New York Police Department flew detectives out to California earlier Thursday with a warrant for Ponsetto’s arrest. The trip followed days of intense media coverage of the fracas at the hotel and demands by the teen’s family and activists that she face criminal charges.
Ponsetto’s lawyer, Sharen Ghatan, said in an interview before the arrest that her client is “emotionally unwell” and remorseful for her Dec. 26 conflict with 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. at Manhattan’s Arlo Hotel.
The teen’s father, jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold, recorded the confrontation and put the video online.
In his video, an agitated woman is seen demanding the teen’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 his son alone. Ghatan confirmed that Ponsetto is the woman in the video.
Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Ponsetto after spotting her driving near her home in Piru, northwest of Los Angeles, said department Capt. Eric Buschow.
She drove two blocks before stopping her vehicle, 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 in and forcibly removed her,” he said, adding that the sheriff’s office would ask county prosecutors to charge her with resisting arrest.