Who is Miya Ponsetto? 22-year-old ex-cheerleader identified as SoHo Karen who accused Black teen of robbing phone
The White woman who accused Grammy Award-winning trumpet player Keyon Harrold's son of stealing her iPhone in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood when she actually left the phone in an Uber has been identified as Miya Ponsetto.
We had earlier reported that Harrold had taken to Instagram with the video he recorded of the incident that showed the woman lunging at him and his 14-year-old son as she desperately tried to claim that the iPhone in Harrold's son's possession belonged to her.
The woman was identified as 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto by the New York Post. The identity of the woman has not been confirmed by the New York Police Department who told Daily Mail that her name will not be released until an arrest has been made, according to our report. According to the New York Post, photos posted by Ponsetto online matched those of the woman who was recorded by Harrold.
Ponsetto's last known address is in Sun Valley, California, and also has an address associated with her at Simi Valley, which is believed to be her former family home. It is believed that she studied at Simi Valley High School in California from the 2015-2016 school year, where she was a varsity cheerleader according to photos posted by her.
Harrold had posted the video on Instagram, writing, "I hate I have to post this!!! I am furious!!! We see this crap happening all the time, but it hits different when it hits home!!! I typically try to keep things positive, but nothing about this video is positive. The lady in this video assaulted my 14-year-old son and me as we came down from our room in the @arlohotels Arlo Soho to get breakfast. This person quote on quote 'lost' her iPhone, and apparently, my son magically acquired it, which is merely ridiculous."
In the clip, the unidentified woman is seen getting the attention of the hotel manager by claiming that Harrold had taken her phone. As the teenager said, “This is my phone,” Harrold intervened, telling him: “You don’t have to explain nothing to her.” As the woman continued to frantically insist that it was her phone and asked the teen to prove that it was not, Harrold replied: “Are you kidding me? You feel like there’s only one iPhone in the world?”
She is also seen continuously lunging toward Harrold as he was shielding his son from her. At one point, she ended up on the floor, after seemingly losing her balance. “She scratched me,” Harrold wrote, “She tackled and grabbed him. He is a child!!!” Harrold posted that her iPhone was finally found when an Uber driver returned it to her after the incident was over. However, the father and son never received an apology for the accusations hurled at them by the woman.
“No apology from her after this traumatic situation to my son, not me,” Harrold stated. “No apologies from the establishment. This sh*t happens too often. It needs to stop!!!”
The allegations by the woman were not corroborated by investigations or witnesses at the incident. After Harrold's video went viral, Arlo Hotel issued a statement on Sunday, December 27, writing, “We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice, and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo Hotel."
"In investigating the incident further, we’ve learned that the manager on duty promptly called the police regarding the woman’s conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence; still, more could have been done to deescalate the dispute," it added.