Central Park Karen fights to avoid jail

What is that they say about karma and female dogs? Or, what goes around comes around.

Well, a New York dog walker who was, for a brief moment, perhaps the most vilified woman in America is certainly finding that out the hard way.

Amy Cooper, who was caught on video calling 911 and telling cops that a Black man was threatening her, made her first appearance in court on Wednesday.

Now, it has emerged that she may avoid jail time in a plea deal with prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. As part of the deal she would publicly acknowledge wrongdoing and take a program to learn why what she did was harmful, the New York Times reported.

Cooper, who is White, was walking her dog in Central Park’s Ramble on May 25 when a Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper asked her to put a leash on her dog. When she refused, he filmed her reaction and her subsequent call to police, in which she said in an agitated voice that an “African-American man” was “threatening me and my dog.”

The video of the incident sparked outrage, as Amy Cooper was criticized for putting Christian’s life in danger. She lost her job and was then charged with filing a false report.

At Wednesday’s closely followed court hearing it emerged that Amy Cooper actually made two calls that day. In the second call she alleged that Christian had tried to assault her, prosecutors said.

“The defendant twice reported that an African-American man was putting her in danger, first by stating that he was threatening her and her dog, then making a second call indicating that he tried to assault her in the Ramble area of the park,” Joan Illuzzi, a senior prosecutor, said.

However, the court heard that Amy Cooper changed her tune once the cops got there. “When the police arrived, however, Ms. Cooper told an officer that her reports were untrue, and that Mr. Cooper had not touched or assaulted her”, the complaint against her says, according to the New York Times.

Cooper’s lawyer Robert Barnes has said in the past that she is the victim of a “cancel culture epidemic”.

“How many lives are we going to destroy over misunderstood 60-second videos on social media?” he asked during the hearing.