A 48-year-old Utah woman featured in a viral TikTok video accusing her of being a “Karen” was charged with sexual battery this week after she told police she pulled a teen’s skirt down at a St. George steakhouse because she felt it was “inappropriate.”
The woman was arrested days after she called police herself, reporting last Saturday that the TikTok video amounted to a “threat on her life” because it insinuated that her interaction with the 19-year-old at least two hours earlier was “sexual in nature,” police documents state.
The video posted to TikTok did not show the woman pulling down the teen’s skirt, but it did show her interacting with the teen’s group in the lobby of Sakura Japanese Steakhouse after the alleged assault.
“I happen to work for the state, and if I have to watch your a-- cheeks hanging out again, I will call CPS,” the 48-year-old woman can be heard saying in the video, seeming to refer to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.
“She’s over 18,” one of the people in the teen’s group responded.
“She is 19 years old,” another said.
“You don’t get to touch her,” someone added.
It’s unclear whether the 48-year-old woman works for the state of Utah, and if so, in what capacity. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name defendants unless they have been charged with a felony. The sexual battery charge the woman faces is a class A misdemeanor.
The woman’s name was not found within an initial search of public salary data. A state employee directory, however, lists an email and phone number for a person with the same name and indicates the individual works with the Utah attorney general’s office.
More details about the person’s role are not listed. The woman’s name was not found in a Utah State Bar directory search. When reached for comment Friday, a spokesperson with the Utah attorney general’s office did not provide more information.
“We are aware of the situation and are following [attorney general’s office] policies and procedures,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The woman’s 911 call came about two hours after she had initially called police about the teen, reporting that the teen’s skirt was hiked up above her genitals while in the view of several minors, police documents state. The woman felt steakhouse staff and other adults were not addressing the issue.
In that call, she told police she “pulled [the teen’s] skirt down and told her to be aware of what she was showing,” according to a probable cause statement for the woman’s arrest.
No officers went to the restaurant after her first call, police records indicate, and no officers went to meet her after her 911 call about the video.
Instead, a St. George police officer made contact with the woman the next day. The woman told the officer she felt it was “her responsibility” to approach the teen and pull her skirt down, because a young boy had seemed to point at the teen’s skirt, and the boy’s father — neither of whom the 48-year-old had any relation to — “did nothing about it,” the document states.
She explained that her intent behind threatening to call “CPS” was to file a report alleging the teen had indecently exposed herself to the boy.
The woman added that she believed the 19-year-old she approached was a minor. The officer replied that “the belief the victim was a minor, should have been more reason to not touch the victim,” the document states.
The officer also countered that while the woman asserted she could see the teen was nude under her skirt, the teen provided evidence to suggest she was wearing underwear and shorts under her skirt and was not being lewd in public.
The woman also argued she never touched the teen, “she had only touched the female’s skirt,” the officer wrote.
“I explained to [the woman] that she had still engaged in criminal behavior by touching the female’s clothing, and that her behavior was not appropriate,” the officer continued.
But he did not arrest her that day. The next day, on Monday, the young woman whose skirt was pulled down came forward, reporting to investigators that the 48-year-old woman had sexually assaulted her by putting her hands up her skirt and groping her, police documents state.
Seven other witnesses came forward and filed statements consistent with the young woman’s report. The teen told authorities that her friend had posted the TikTok video in an attempt to identify the woman who touched her. The teen also provided police with a separate video of herself in the skirt she wore that night.
The 48-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday and charged with sexual battery on Thursday. She was booked into the Washington County jail after her arrest, but released on bail Thursday after paying $1,000.
— Tribune staff writer Emily Anderson Stern contributed to this report.
