The now-fired Utah state employee who went viral for yanking down a teen girl’s mini-skirt in a fit of rage at a busy steakhouse has accepted a plea deal, according to a report.
Ida Ann Lorenzo, 49, pleaded “no contest” to a single misdemeanor count of sexual battery, KTVX reported.
Lorenzo admitted she “knowingly and intentionally” touched “the buttocks of another person under the circumstances she should have known would cause affront or alarm,” according to court documents.
Under the agreement, Lorenzo’s plea will be held in abeyance for a year as long, and as she doesn’t break any laws, completes a mental health evaluation, and has no contact with the victim, the case against her will be dismissed.
Footage taken moments after Lorenzo allegedly yanked down the skirt of a 19-year-old girl in the lobby of Sakura Japanese Steakhouse on April 20 has gone viral, with the clip gaining over one million views on TikTok.
The 49-year-old was hired as a legal secretary with the Utah Attorney General’s office on March 4, but was relieved of her duties on April 25 — the same day she was hit with criminal charges stemming from the steakhouse incident.
Following mounting backlash online from the viral altercation, Lorenzo contacted police, saying she felt a “threat on her life” after being accused of sexually harassing the teen in the St. George restaurant.
In bodycam footage taken inside the local police station on April 22, Lorenzo claimed she saw the teen’s “entire (vagina) and butt cheeks” and admitted to tugging on her skirt, but said her hands never touched her skin.
The officer speaking with her informed her it wasn’t “her job” to physically take matters into her own hands and that she should have called the police.
Police said the teen whose skirt was allegedly pulled down by Lorenzo also contacted them to report that “she was sexually assaulted while in the lobby” of the restaurant.
Other witnesses also filed police reports about the incident at the steakhouse.
Lorenzo was arrested on April 24 after the victim told officers she felt Lorenzo’s “cold hands against [her] skin.”
Lorenzo was booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane and released after posting bail.
