A Utah woman who went viral and was dubbed a “Karen” after she was accused of pulling down a young woman’s skirt that she found to be too short and revealing in public has entered into a plea deal on a misdemeanor sexual battery charge.
Ida Lorenzo, 49, confronted a young woman April 20 at a St. George, Utah, eatery in a spat partly caught on camera.
In the video, posted April 21, she appears to brag that she works for the state as she admonishes the young woman for her skirt.
“I happen to work for the state, and if I have to watch your ass cheeks hanging out again I will call CPS,” Lorenzo says in the clip, referring to Utah’s Division of Child Protective Services.
The video was recorded by a female in the group and captioned: “Karen gets upset my friend is wearing a mini skirt, so she aggressively grabs it, yanks it down and says ‘you’re probably underage, you probably shouldn’t be wearing that’ then causes a scene in a busy restaurant.”
In the clip, the young woman in the skirt is not visible.
Lorenzo is seen talking to a group of the young girls who defend their friend by saying, “She’s over 18. She is 19 years old” and “You don’t get to touch her,” and urging her to call the police.
Lorenzo ended up calling St. George police on April 21, a day after the incident, after she saw the video on social media. She called dispatch saying that she holds a position with the state and that the video caused a threat on her life, according to the probable cause affidavit.
She told police that she confronted a young woman at a restaurant who was wearing “explicit clothing” that exposed her private parts with children present. Lorenzo told law enforcement that she felt it was her responsibility to address the woman and that she tried to pull the woman’s skirt down to cover “exposed genitalia,” the affidavit said.
An officer asked why Lorenzo, who assumed the young female was a minor, would find it appropriate to touch her. She responded that she never touched the woman, just her skirt. She told police that the woman and her friends recorded part of the incident and posted it to social media with the tagline of being a “Karen,” the affidavit said.
On April 22, the woman who was alleged to have been wearing the short skirt came forward to police, saying she was sexually assaulted in the lobby of a restaurant on April 20.
She said that Lorenzo confronted her while her back was turned and that without any warning, “she felt cold hands go up her skirt, touching her buttocks before she felt her skirt being pulled on.” The victim said that “she was startled by the encounter, and felt violated,” the probate cause affidavit said.
The victim and seven other witnesses came forward and filled out witness statements. The female victim said she was wearing underwear and shorts under her skirt, making it impossible to have been exposing herself.
Lorenzo was charged with sexual battery as a class A misdemeanor.
The charge was lowered to a class B misdemeanor in a plea deal filed Aug. 7, according to Washington County court records.
She entered a plea in abeyance, no contest. Under the agreement, no sentence will be imposed for a year as long as she complies with the terms — she is not allowed to commit any crimes, she may not contact the victim, and she must undergo a mental health evaluation.
Susanne Gustin, Lorenzo’s attorney, said Tuesday that Lorenzo has declined to comment on the plea agreement.
The day she was charged, Lorenzo was sent a termination letter from the Utah attorney general’s office, where she worked as a legal secretary for less than two months, Utah News Dispatch reported. The letter of termination said she had “not passed your probationary employment period successfully” and cited “your non-compliance with policies and standards related to performance,” the news site reported.
The AG’s office told NBC News in a brief statement Tuesday: “We are aware of the situation and are following AGO policies and procedures.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
