Daddy Hat / Soho Karen

Overview

Daddy Hat refers to the baseball cap worn by Miya Ponsetto in an CBS Interview, regarding her alleged assault on a Black male teen after falsely accusing him of stealing her cell phone in the lobby of a New York hotel in December 2020. Following the incident at the Arlo Hotel in New York, some online began referring to Ponsetto as Soho Karen. Police arrested Ponsetto, who claimed the teen stole her phone, the following month in California on charges stemming from the attack.

Background

On December 26th, 2020, jazz musician Keyon Harold posted a video of Miya Ponsetto allegedly assaulting his 14-year-old son at the Arlo Hotel in New York City. Harold says that Ponsetto accused his son of stealing her cellphone, which was later found in the hotel.^[1] Within three weeks, the video received more than 3 million views and 125,000 likes.

In the post, Harold wrote:

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 merely ridiculous. This incident went on for five more minutes, me protecting my son from this lunatic. She scratched me; she Tackled and grabbed him. He is a child!!! Now watch it again. This lady is not even a guest at the hotel. She checked out of the hotel on the 23rd of December; today is the 26th. Now watch as the manager advocates for the lady who is not even a hotel guest, insisting and attempting to use his managerial authority to force my son to show his phone to this random lady. He actually empowered her!!! He didn't even consider the fact we were actually the guests! Now think about the trauma that my son now has to carry, only coming downstairs to have box day brunch with his dad. Then… her phone was magically returned by an Uber driver a few minutes after this incident. No apology from her after this traumatic situation to my son, not me. No apologies from the establishment. This shit happens so often. It needs to stop!!! If anyone recognizes this person, please tag or DM.

Developments

Arlo Hotels Response

On December 27th, 2020, the verified Arlo Hotels Instagram page responded to the video.^[2] They wrote, "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." The post received more than 8,700 likes in less than three weeks (shown below).

Arrest

On January 8th, 2020, Police in Ventura County, California arrested Miya Ponsetto, 22, at her home in Piru, California. According to a Ventura County Sheiff spokesperson, Ponsetto resisted arrested and attempted to slam her car door on officers.^[3]

That day, Redditor ^[7] colxx posted about the arrest in the /r/news subreddit. The post received more than 5,300 points (96% upvoted) and 675 comments in less than two days.

CBS Interview

On January 8th, 2020, Ponsetto appeared in a video interview with Gayle King of CBS News. During the interview, Ponsetto explained how she could have approached the situation better. She said:

Maybe not yelled at him like that, and made him feel you know, some sort of, uh, inferior way, making him feel as if I was like, hurting his feelings -- that's not my intention. I consider myself super sweet.

I do, sincerely from the bottom of my heart, apologize that if I had made this son feel as I assaulted him or hurt his feelings

After King challenged her depiction of the event, Ponsetto responded:

How would you feel, if you were alone in New York and, you know, you're going to spend time with your family during the holidays, and you lose the one thing that gets stolen from you that has all of the access to the only way that you're able to get back home.

Ponsetto later ended the video, abruptly telling King, "Alright, Gayle. Enough."

That day, CBS tweeted video of the interview. They wrote, "The 22-year-old woman caught on camera allegedly physically attacking a 14-year-old Black teen and falsely accusing him of stealing her phone was arrested in California. In an exclusive interview, Miya Ponsetto and her lawyer spoke with @GayleKing hours before she was arrested." The post received more than 5 million views, 51,000 likes and 34,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

The 22-year-old woman caught on camera allegedly physically attacking a 14-year-old Black teen and falsely accusing him of stealing her phone was arrested in California.

In an exclusive interview, Miya Ponsetto and her lawyer spoke with @GayleKing hours before she was arrested. pic.twitter.com/ezaGkcWZ8j

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 8, 2021

Following the post, people began posting comments, jokes and memes about the interview and Ponsetto's hat, which reads, "Daddy," causing the word to become a trending topic on Twitter. Writer Charlotte Clymer tweeted,^[4] "This is the most disastrous interview I’ve ever seen in my life. The sheer patience of Gayle King here is remarkable. I don’t know why Miya Ponsetto’s lawyer didn’t step in and end this disaster." The post received more than 15,000 likes and 4,000 retweets in less than 12 hours (shown below, left).

The verified Twitter account for the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don't Tell Me tweeted,^[5] "LAWYER: We got you an interview with Gayle King. It's the perfect chance to show potential jurors a different side of you. Maybe someone who loves her family? MIYA: I'll get my daddy hat. LAWYER: Sounds great…no, wait…your what?" The tweet received more than 5,100 likes and 700 retweets in less than 12 hours (shown below, center).

Twitter user @kathleenelee tweeted,^[6] "If you can get past the "daddy" hat and the racism, she chose this moment to wear a crop bralette." The tweet received more than 6,400 likes and 700 retweets in less than 12 hours (shown below, right).

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the story, including New York Daily News,^[8] NBC,^[9] TMZ,^[10] San Fransisco Gate,^[11] Gothamist,^[12] New York Post,^[13] The Cut^[14] and more.

Guilty Plea

On April 11th, 2022, Ponsetto pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of wrongful imprisonment. The plea puts her under two years probation, and if that probation is violated, could land her a sentence of four years in prison. This was reported on by CBS New York, who uploaded their coverage to YouTube on April 11th, 2022, where they earned 11,000 views in one day^[15] (shown below).

Search Interest

External References