Woman who left phone in taxi and accused Black teen of stealing it is charged with hate crime

A 22-year-old California woman who accused a Black teenager of stealing her phone after she left it in the back of a taxi has been charged with hate crimes.

On 26 December last year, at Arlo Hotel in New York City, Miya Ponsetto accused Keyon Harrold Jr - the 14-year-old son of Jazz musician Keyon Harrold - of stealing her phone. A viral video of the incident also appeared to show her attacking him. In the video, Ms Ponsetto is seen yelling at Keyon and lunging at him while he denies stealing her phone.

On Wednesday, Ms Ponsetto was arraigned in Manhattan and charged with hate crimes. She pleaded not guilty, appearing for her arraignment virtually.

Ms Ponsetto was arrested on 8 January in California and was charged in Manhattan with two counts of attempted assault, attempted robbery, grand larceny and endangering the welfare of a child. Reports said that she wasn’t charged with a hate crime at that point. However, Harrold subsequently asked for hate crime charges to be levelled against her.