Woman charged with misdemeanor assault in viral SEPTA pepper-spraying incident

A woman who was seen pepper-spraying a conservative influencer on a SEPTA bus in a viral video earlier this month has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Paulina Reyes, 22, was charged with assault as well as possessing an instrument of crime, harassment and disorderly conduct, according to the state Attorney General’s Office. The case will be prosecuted by Michael Untermeyer, the office’s mass transit prosecutor.

Reyes did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. She is a former intern with Billy Penn at WHYY.

Reyes was seen in an altercation on a SEPTA bus in a video posted to social media by Frank Scales, a self-described independent journalist and avowed conservative who conducts man-on-the-street interviews in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Both went to the Community College of Philadelphia, where they interacted multiple times, with Reyes even interviewing Scales at one point.

Scales successfully ran for student government president at the community college before he was impeached and was accused of using “derogatory language in reference to people of color and other marginalized groups,” according to a letter he provided to “The College Fix.

In the viral video, Reyes first confronts Scales while he’s seated on the bus, claiming he talks “s***” about people of color and people who follow Islam.

At one point, when Scales hands his phone to his companion nearby, she tells him to stop filming him before appearing to try to smack the camera out of his hand.

She’s later seen in the video pepper-spraying Scales. According to SETPA, police took Scales’ statement and he “refused any medical attention.”

In a statement, Attorney General Dave Sunday said, “violence will not be tolerated as a means to conduct political debate, protest, or exhibit differences.”

“This type of violence is senseless, as we have an individual facing criminal charges over political disagreement,” Sunday wrote.

Scales, who posts his videos on X under the handle @Surge_Philly, has had a number of encounters with left-leaning groups that he films and posts on social media, using captions like “most participants seem uninformed, or are unhinged and bordering on violent.”

In a video posted earlier this week, he is seen being pushed by a person he described as a “crazy Anti-ICE protester” before claiming that a reporter with CBS Philadelphia declined to interview him about it. He also filmed himself in the back of an ambulance earlier this month, claiming he was “MACED at an Anti-Ice protest in Philadelphia.”

Following the incident with Reyes, Scales was interviewed by right-wing political activist and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec as well as Sara Gonzalez, a correspondent with the conservative media outlet BlazeTV.