Transcript of CBS This Morning segment with Gayle King interviewing Miya Ponsetto, January 8, 2021

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[Note, transcript below was not written by a professional transcriber; no affiliation with CBS]

GAYLE KING: The woman caught on camera physically attacking a Black teenager and falsely accusing him of stealing her cell phone has been arrested in California. It happened last night. You might remember this video. Miya Ponsetto approached 14-year old Keyon Harrold Jr. at a New York City Hotel last month, accusing him of stealing her phone. His father, jazz musician Keyon Harrold, recorded the encounter and accused Ponsetto of racial profiling.

[Hotel surveillance video footage: Masked woman yelling, “No, I’m not letting him walk away with my phone!” Video continues with GK voiceover, below]

GAYLE KING: Now, the video shows Ponsetto trying to stop the teenager from leaving the hotel lobby and then rushing toward them. Hotel surveillance video shows the 22-year old woman tackling Keyon Junior. Now, he never had the phone; it turned up several minutes later at the hotel. New York City detectives went to California yesterday to coordinate Ponsetto’s arrest in connection with the confrontation. She was contacted at a traffic stop in Ventura County near Los Angeles. Officials say that police had to pull her out of the car when she refused to get out. Now, in an exclusive interview – we’ve just done that interview yesterday afternoon, her lawyer spoke with us before she was arrested – they told us that NYPD had not yet contacted them.

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[Video of interview between Gayle King, Miya Ponsetto and her lawyer]

GK: Miya, help me understand, what made you think that Keyon had your phone? That’s why I’m confused. Why did you think he had it?

MP: I was approaching the people that had been exiting the hotel because in my mind, anybody exiting is probably the one that -- might be the one that is trying to steal my phone. I admit, yes, I could have approached the situation differently or maybe not yelled at him like that and made him feel, you know, maybe some sort of, uh, inferior way, making him feel as if I was like hurting his feelings, because that’s not my intention, I consider myself to be super sweet. I really never, ever meant for it to like, hurt him or his father, either.

GK Are you saying that you were stopping everybody in the lobby asking them about your phone, is that what you’re saying?

MP: Um, not everyone, just the people that, in the meantime, while the hotel manager was checking the footage, I just wanted to do my part as best as I could.

GK: You just described yourself as “super sweet.” I know you’ve seen the video. When you look at the video, the reaction seems very extreme. It doesn’t seem like it’s someone who’s super sweet.

MP: 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?

GK: I just don’t think I would randomly attack people, is what I’m saying to you. I know you said you could have handled it better, but I just don’t think I would randomly attack people in the manner in which you did. What do you think when you look at that video? You’re standing there in your leggings and your flip flops, and it looks like you’re just going nuts, for lack of a better word.

[Replays hotel video surveillance footage]

MP: I don’t feel that that is who I am as a person. I don’t feel like this one mistake does define me. But I do sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, apologize that if I made the son feel as if I insulted him or if I hurt his feelings or the father’s feelings --

GK: I don’t believe one mistake defines anybody, but I think when I look at that particular video, you’re -- you did more than just accuse him. The video seems to show that you physically attacked this young boy. You do see that too, right?

MP At the end of the day, the dad did end up, like, slamming me to the ground and pulling my hair and throwing me, and dragging me across the ground, so, I will say that.

GK: Yeah, but, I think, you know, the video we saw, it looked like you had just attacked his son.

MP: Yeah, the footage shows me attacking his son, of -- attacking him how? Yelling at him, yes. Okay, I apologize, can we move on.

GK: I know you’re saying, I don’t need to, I just want to apologize, but I do think that there should be some context to your actions that day.

MP: Okay, so, basically, I’m – I’m a 22-year old girl. I’m, I um, I don’t, racism, uh, is, I, how is one girl accusing a guy about a phone a crime? Where is the context in that? What is the deeper – what is the deeper – what is the deeper story here?

GK: Miya, Miya, Miya, it’s not -- that’s not the problem. You have to at least understand your actions that day. You seem to have attacked this little boy – this young boy, this teenager, you seem to have attacked this teenager about the phone, and then it turned out he didn’t even have your phone. That’s the thing, I mean, you are saying, look, I’m 22 years old. You are 22 years old, but you are old enough to know better. So I will say, you’re 22 --

MP: (Gestures, holding out hand.) Enough. (Lawyer turns to her and says, “Stop.”) The hotel did end up having my phone. I did get my belongings returned to me…

[Interview video ends]

[Did not transcribe the rest of the segment – see video, which has another approx. 2 minutes of Gayle King and other anchors in studio; GK says they will show more of the interview video on Monday]