Black teenager wrongly accused of stealing white woman’s iPhone ‘seriously traumatised’

Family lawyer says 100,000 signatures for petition calling on Miya Ponsetto to be charged, a ‘significant milestone’

A black teenager who was wrongly accused of stealing a woman’s iPhone was said to be “seriously traumatised” by the allegations and needed therapy, his father has said.

Keyon Harrold, a Grammy award winning musician, told TMZ on Sunday that his 14-year-old son Keyon Harrold Jr. was scarred by accusations that were made by 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto, who has since been nicknamed “Soho Karen”.

Ms Ponsetto and the Harrolds were staying at the Arlo Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan, late last month when she was caught on camera accusing Harrold Jr. of stealing her iPhone in a hotel lobby.

Mr Harrold, who is black, recorded Ms Ponsetto attack the teenager and scream hysterically, in a video that was widely shared after it was uploaded to Instagram on 26 December.

Many social media users condemned the woman, who was then nicknamed “SoHo Karen”.

Similar nicknames have been used to describe white women who have abused black men in public in the past year, such as Amy Cooper, who went viral after she was videoed phoning 911 on a black bird watcher in the city’s Central Park in March.  

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

Mr Harrold told the Times last weekend that he was “shell shocked” by the incident, and that he and 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 100,000 signatures,  with calls to prosecute Ms Ponsetto.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who set up the petition, said on Tuesday that he he hoped “this significant milestone - 100,000 people demanding justice for Keynon - gets the attention of the DA (District Attorney)," and that charges would be brought against her.

“Can you imagine how quickly charges would have been brought if the circumstances were reversed and a black woman attacked a white child, claiming he had stolen her phone?", Mr Crump added.

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 Arlo Hotel said in a statement to the Times last week that “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.”