ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — The Utah woman charged with sexual battery after allegedly yanking down a teenager’s miniskirt in a St. George restaurant lost her job with the state the day she was charged, documents obtained by ABC4 show.
The recorded aftermath of the skirt-pulling incident went viral on TikTok. The video shows a self-described state employee, Ida Ann Lorenzo, reprimanding the teenager’s friends, telling them that if she has to see the teen’s “a** cheeks hanging out again,” she’ll call Child Protective Services.
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The video, which has now amassed more than 13 million views, labeled Lorenzo as a “Karen,” and its spread on social media prompted Lorenzo to be the first one to contact police regarding the April 20 incident in the packed entryway of Sakura Japanese Steakhouse.
However, after the teenager involved also came forward to police, it was Lorenzo who found herself facing a Class A misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Lorenzo, 48, of Santa Clara, was charged on April 25. That same day, she lost her job with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, documents obtained by ABC4 show. She had been hired the month before to work as a legal secretary in Washington County.
“I am writing to inform you that you have not passed your probationary employment period successfully and today, April 25, 2024, you are being separated from state employment with the attorney general’s office. Your noncompliance with policies and standards related to performance contributed to this decision,” her termination letter states.
ABC4 reached out to the Utah Attorney General’s Office for additional comment, but the station did not hear back.
Body camera footage of Lorenzo’s multiple conversations with St. George police show her claiming she could see the teenager’s “entire [vagina] and buttcheeks,” because her skirt was so short.
Lorenzo told police that she yanked down the teen’s miniskirt because a young boy was in the foyer and no one else, particularly the men present, would take action.
“Everyone behind me applauded,” Lorenzo told the officer in one of the phone calls.
The teenager, who is a legal adult, told police that Lorenzo came up behind her without warning and pulled down her skirt. She said that she could feel Lorenzo’s cold hands on her skin.
The teenager also provided police video of her wearing the skirt, even spinning around in it. She told investigators that she was wearing underwear that night.
In Lorenzo’s multiple conversations with police, the investigator explained that unwanted touching of a person’s private areas is against the law, even if she only touched the clothing around those areas.
“There was no incident. You created it,” the investigator told her, the body camera footage shows. “The consequences of your actions have been all of this.”
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