A Utah woman lost her job after furor over her confrontation in a restaurant with a teenager whose skirt she deemed too short.
The latest development was reported by TV station KSL, which said newly released documents indicate Ida Lorenzo was fired by the state attorney general’s office on April 25 — the day she was charged with misdemeanor sexual battery against the young woman in the restaurant.
The confrontation took place on the evening of April 20, a Saturday, in the lobby of Sakura Japanese Steakhouse in St. George, in Utah’s southwest corner. In the alleged battery, Lorenzo — a 48-year-old secretary — reportedly tugged on the skirt of a 19-year-old woman who was standing with her friends.
Video posted on social media shows the immediate aftermath: The young woman and her friends express outrage, and Lorenzo tells them: “I happen to work for the state, and if I have to watch your … cheeks hanging out again, I will call CPS.”
The police were not called to the restaurant, but the department said Lorenzo called 911 the following day and then went to the police station to complain about the skirt and about the “harassment” she had suffered because of the video’s posting.
On April 23, the young woman contacted the police to tell her side of the story, and on April 24, the police — having seen surveillance video from the restaurant — arrested Lorenzo.
A booking affidavit quoted by KSL said Lorenzo claimed that the young woman’s “explicit clothing” had drawn the attention of a 10-year-old boy in the restaurant and that Lorenzo “felt that it was her responsibility to address the female by approaching her, and attempted to pull down the female’s skirt to cover what Ida explained to be exposed genitalia.”
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Lorenzo said she did not touch the woman, only the skirt, but the young woman later told police she was startled when she felt “cold hands” on her buttocks.
According to the affidavit, the young woman denied the skirt was inappropriate and she provided video of herself in the clothes she had been wearing.
Records released Wednesday, May 22, to KSL indicate that Lorenzo had been hired March 4 as a legal secretary in the attorney general’s office in St. George and was told on April 25 that she had not passed her probation and was “being separated from state employment.” The notice did not specifically mention the restaurant incident; it cited only “noncompliance with policies and standards related to performance.”
