A southern Utah woman who leaned on her position as a state employee in a confrontation with a young woman whose skirt she thought was too short has now resolved the criminal charge against her.
Ida Lorenzo, 49, of Santa Clara, faced a class A misdemeanor charge of sexual battery following the April incident at a St. George restaurant. She entered a plea in abeyance July 30, pleading no contest to a reduced class B misdemeanor charge that will now be held with no sentence for one year so long as she complies with the terms of the agreement and commits no new offenses. After that, the case can be dismissed.
According to a record of the hearing, the young woman in the case supported the agreement. As part of the plea, Lorenzo is to have no contact with the victim.
The case around Lorenzo exploded when a video showing her confronting the young woman, who was out to dinner with a group of friends, went viral on TikTok.
A caption on the video claimed Lorenzo was “upset my friend is wearing a mini skirt, so she aggressively yanks it down and says ‘you’re probably underage, you probably shouldn’t be wearing that’ then causes a scene in a busy restaurant.”
Lorenzo can be seen in the video wielding an employee badge and telling the young woman and her friends “I happen to work for the state, and if I have to see your acheeks hanging out again, I will call CPS,” a reference to Utah’s Child Protective Services office.
After seeing the video online the next day, Lorenzo contacted St. George police to report that the young woman had no underwear on under her mini skirt, which exposed her genitalia to children, so Lorenzo pulled her skirt down to cover her, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in support of Lorenzo’s arrest.
However, officers questioned why Lorenzo had touched the woman, especially after Lorenzo said she believed the young woman was a minor, the affidavit shows.
The young woman in the video and seven witnesses also contacted police. The woman reported that Lorenzo approached her from behind with no warning, saying “she felt cold hands go up her skirt, touching her buttocks before she felt her skirt being pulled on,” according to the affidavit.
The officer wrote that he confirmed the woman had been wearing both underwear and shorts beneath the skirt, which the woman said would make any inappropriate exposure “impossible.”
On the day charges were filed a termination letter was sent to Lorenzo from the Utah Attorney General’s Office, where she had been working as a legal secretary for less than two months, dismissing her from the job because she had “not passed your probationary employment period successfully.”
The brief letter cited “your non-compliance with policies and standards related to performance.”
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