Lawyer for Pregnant NYC Nurse Involved in Bike Feud Vows to Sue Media for Defamation

The lawyer representing a pregnant New York City physician’s assistant whose confrontation with a group of black men over a rented bike led to her suspension from the hospital where she works said he plans to sue media outlets that cast her as a racist thief.

Sarah Jane Comrie got into an argument last week with a few young black men, who claimed she was stealing a rental bike they paid for. Video of the incident quickly circulated on social media, generating millions of views and prompting Bellevue Hospital to place her on leave pending investigation. Her attorney Justin Marino said he later obtained a receipt, which was provided to multiple outlets, proving Comrie paid for the bike.

In the video, Comrie struggles to wrestle the bike from the teenagers for her commute home, yelling “Help me!” and “Please get off me” and putting her head in her hands in distress. One man can be seen gripping the bike, physically preventing her departure, while saying, “This is not your bike.”

“Yo don’t let her take it bro,” another man is heard saying in the background. A bystander encouraged Comrie to take the bike next to her, avoiding any further escalation.

A few minor press outlets, and the black men involved in the altercation, claimed that Comrie was fake crying and stole the bike. Multiple major press outlets also reported that the video suggested she stole the bike. Some online figures disparaged Comrie as a “Karen,” a popular slang term for a white woman who feels entitled to special treatment.

“We are gonna get an answer when we start filing defamation lawsuits,” Marino told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer Friday. “She’s been called a racist, she’s been called a thief, there are reasons defamation laws exist, and we plan to pursue that.”

On Tuesday, a publication called Distractify reported the story under the headline, “Woman Tries ‘Weaponizing’ Her Tears in Bike Dispute, Immediately Stops When It Doesn’t Work.” A blog called the Black Enterprise published an article titled, “Nurse Sheds White Woman Tears in an Attempt to Steal a City Bike from a Black Man.”

“This saga continues the tradition of the ‘Karen’ persona attempting to take advantage of what’s been labeled ‘white privilege,’ but now, with technology at our fingertips, we can instantly capture these moments as proof,” the blog stated.

NBC News promoted its report with a tweet that said the video “appeared to show her attempting to take a rental bike from a group of young Black men.” Twitter fact-checked the tweet as misleading, noting that numerous publications corroborated that Comrie has a receipt proving she paid for the bike.

A CBS News headline still reads that Comrie was “accused of trying to take bike from Black teens” and the underlying article does not mention Comrie’s receipts.

Writer and Twitter personality Monique Judge, who has over 40 thousand followers, tweeted, “Citibike Karen has deleted all her social media accounts. Don’t hide now, bitch. Be as loud and proud as you were when you weaponized your white lady tears and screamed ‘help’ to try and get those young Black men killed.”

Film producer and internet personality Tariq Nasheed also tweeted the disproven claim that the teenager paid for the bike, calling Comrie a “suspected white supremacist.”

“A suspected white supremacist woman tried to steal a Citi Bike from a Black kid after he paid for it, and when him and his friends wouldn’t allow her to steal it, she went thru all the Karen tactics to try to get the Black youths hemmed up: *Screaming for help *Fake crying *Mayo Babbling,” he wrote.