IPhone lady: sorry
Has ‘anger’ issues, hopes to apologize to teen she accused
A woman who wrongly accused a Black teen of stealing her iPhone at a Manhattan hotel knows she has “anger management” issues and wants to apologize to the teen’s family, her lawyer told the Daily News.
Miya Ponsetto — dubbed “SoHo Karen” for blaming and tackling the 14-year-old son of Grammy-winning jazz musician Keyon Harrold in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel on Dec. 26 — understands she acted inappropriately, the lawyer said.
Ponsetto, 22, wants to “give peace to the family” and say that the attack wasn’t racially motivated, lawyer Sharen Ghatan said Wednesday.
“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 told The News.
The Los Angeles lawyer said she tried to reach out to Harrold family attorney Ben Crump to broker a meeting, but hasn’t heard back.
“She’s very sorry about it,” Ghatan said of Ponsetto (photo) and the viral caught-on-video attack.
“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,” Ghatan said.
“She lost her phone, and she lost her mind. Obviously, it was ill-advised. She wouldn’t do it again. This is certainly not racially motivated. She’s devastated about that interpretation,” the lawyer said.
“She wants to clarify and give peace to the family. She’s mixed race. She specifically said it’s not about race. The way she talks, it’s not even an issue. It was the phone.”
Ghatan said Ponsetto, a California resident, was in New York visiting her dad for the Christmas holiday when she lost control and got physical with the teen.
She said Ponsetto was “traveling alone” and panicked when she lost the phone she relied on to stay connected and feel safe.
“Everything is on her phone — all her flight plans, her phone numbers. Without the phone, she was almost lost in New York,” the lawyer said.
“She told me, ‘I freaked out. I was alone, I wasn’t getting help, and I didn’t know what to do.’ She’s very sorry,” the lawyer said.
Ghatan said Ponsetto was missing for much of day Tuesday but finally returned home to her mom late in the night.
“Does she want to face the music and apologize and clear the air? Absolutely,” Ghatan said.
The lawyer spoke to The News as two NYPD detectives were set to fly to California to make contact with Ponsetto ahead of possible criminal charges in New York.
“They have to talk to me before they talk to her. I’m amenable to speaking with them,” Ghatan told The News.
Attempts to reach Crump were not immediately successful.
The lawyer previously told The News he wanted to see criminal charges in the case.
“We’re demanding that they prosecute this case,” Crump said. “If not, they’re part of the racial profiling as well. We know they would have prosecuted a Black adult tackling a white child.”
Ponsetto already has a criminal case pending in Los Angeles County related to another incident at a swanky hotel.
She and her mom
Nicole
Ponsetto, 49, were arrested Feb. 28 at the luxury Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and charged with public intoxication. Nicole also was slapped with a count of battery of a police officer, according to the criminal complaint.
The mother-daughter duo has pleaded not guilty.
Miya was arrested again for drunken driving on May 28, a day after her 22nd birthday.
She pleaded no contest to driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% or higher and was sentenced Sept. 28 to three years of summary probation, 30 hours of community service and a first-time offender DUI program.
Less than a week later, she was arrested again for suspected DUI on Oct. 3 in neighboring Ventura County.
She has since pleaded not guilty to multiple DUI counts as well as misdemeanor resisting arrest and driving with a suspended or revoked license, Ventura County Superior Court records confirm.