Central Park 'Karen' Will be Prosecuted for False Report

Amy Cooper -- the notorious Central Park "Karen" who called the police to lie and say a black man was attacking her -- is now facing criminal prosecution for it.

Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance Jr. just announced his office has initiated a prosecution of Cooper for "Falsely Reporting an Incident in the Third Degree."

Cooper has been issued a court date for October, and Vance added ... "I would like to encourage anyone who has been the target of false reporting to contact our Office. We are strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable."

As you'll recall ... Amy retaliated against a black man named Christian Cooper (no relation) back on Memorial Day after he, a bird watcher, complained that her dog was off-leash ... in violation, he felt, of a law requiring dogs to be on-leash in Central Park from 9 AM to 9 PM.

Her response, which Christian caught on video, was to threaten to call NYPD and "tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life" ... and she did.

The vid went viral, and despite Amy issuing an apology, she was fired from her job at Franklin Templeton ... which stated, "We do not tolerate racism of any kind."

Amy also briefly lost custody of her rescue dog seen in the video but got it back 10 days later after it was evaluated by a vet and found to be in good health.