Ghatan said her client wanted to "clear the air" after Keyon Harrold, a jazz trumpeter, recorded and posted online Ponsetto's confrontation with his 14-year-old son Keyon Harrold Jr. at a Manhattan hotel.

The video sparked national outrage as another instance in which a Black person faced a baseless accusation, while minding his own business.

"In her mind, it had absolutely nothing to do with race. It had to do with her phone, which was her lifeline," Ghatan said. "It had her Apple Pay wallet, it had her passwords, it had her flight information, her phone numbers, her emails — everything was on there. Without it, she was essentially lost in New York. And once she lost her cellphone, she lost her mind."

However, in a now-viral video interview with CBS News This Morning, Ponsetto refused to remove an odd black baseball cap with the word "Daddy" emblazoned across the front. She also interrupted anchor Gayle King — "Alright, Gayle! Enough!" — and lifted her hand in a dismissive gesture, only to storm out of the interview moments later.

Ghatan said the behavior of her client in the interview might have done more damage rather than clear the air. Ghatan cited her client's mental health as the reason to cancel subsequent interviews with other mainstream media outlets.

Now, the suspect, Ponsetto, 22 years old, is facing charges of attempted robbery, grand larceny, acting in a manner injurious to a child and two counts of attempted assault, after being extradited by the authorities to New York soon after the interview. Since the arrest, Ponsetto's legal history, including her two DUIs, has entered the national spotlight.

Ghatan said she was originally retained by her client and her mother for a separate incident involving alleged public intoxication and battery at a Beverly Hills hotel. And Ghatan agreed to represent Ponsetto since she was already representing her as a client. Meanwhile, Paul D'Emilia, a criminal defense attorney in New York, is representing Ponsetto in the Empire State.

"I never signed onto this, I never looked for this, I never wanted to be any part of this," Ghatan said. "This was my courtesy being extended to someone who already was a client."

Jan Jacobowitz, an ethics attorney based in South Florida with her own consulting practice, said Ghatan's use of the term "challenging" to describe her client in the CBS This Morning interview could be appropriate without violating lawyer-client confidentiality.

Had Ghatan been interviewed without Ponsetto, and King then asked the attorney about her client, prompting her to say "she is very challenging or she does not listen to me," then, Jacobowitz noted, that would have been a breach of client confidentiality. She said Ponsetto was clearly challenging her attorney and King on national television.

"They were all there together, King, the attorney and the client. She was characterizing something that has been on full display, as opposed to breaching the confidentiality of a client for being disloyal in a more traditional way," Jacobowitz said. "She's not telling the world anything the world was not participating in and observing."