Mario Batali, once considered America’s best celebrity chef, appeared in court Monday in Boston on battery charging and indecent assault connected with what started as a selfie session at a Boston bar in 2017.
Some Famous chefs and restaurateurs has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse since the #MeToo movement spread to the world of restaurants and hotels in fall 2017, but Mr. Batali is the only person facing criminal charges.
If convicted, he could face two and a half years in the Suffolk County Correctional Building and be required to register as a sex offender.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Monday, but in the morning Mr Batali told Judge James Stanton he would waive the jury’s jurisdiction and leave the verdict instead to the judge, The Boston Globe reports. The witnessing was conducted mid-morning.
The woman Mr. Batali, 61, is accused of assaulting is Natali Tene, 32, who has also filed a complaint. litigation based on a similar encounter with Mr. Batali at Towne Stove and Spirits, a bar in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston that has since closed.
The charges in both the civil and criminal cases are the same: Ms. Tene said that while drinking with a friend at a bar, she noticed Mr. Batali and took his picture. He called her and offered to take a selfie. He then grabbed her breasts, buttocks and groin, forcibly kissed her mouth and cheeks, and suggested they go to his nearby hotel, according to court documents.
Ms. Tene’s attorney, Matthew Fogelman, said on Monday he would not comment on civil or criminal cases until the criminal matter was resolved. He also represents Alexandra Brown, who filed a similar lawsuit based on an incident with Mr. Batali during a selfie session in Boston’s Chinatown.
In earlier statements to The New York Times, an attorney for Mr. Batali denied the accounts in Ms. Tene’s civil and criminal complaints.
“The charges, brought by the same individual without any new basis, are null and void,” attorney Anthony E. Fuller said in a statement when Mr. Batali pleaded not guilty to the charges. allegation in Boston City Court in 2019. The case. Progress has been partially halted due to the Covid pandemic.
Mr. Batali, formerly the host of ABC’s daytime talk show “The Chew,” is one of several chefs and restaurateurs accused of sexual assault and harassment in the restaurant industry that have come to light. revealed in the fall of 2017 in cities like San Francisco, New York, and New Orleans. Mr. Batali’s conduct first came to light in December 2017 when four women told the Eater website that he inappropriately touched them as part of a pattern of behavior they and others say lasted at least two decades.
Other reports of Mr. Batali .’s conduct was revealed in a Times article tomorrow; Several women have described sexual harassment and assault at Spotted Pig, a favorite Manhattan playground for Mr. Batali and several other famous chefs, musicians and sports stars.
The New York Police Department investigated three sexual assault complaints against Mr. Batali, but a department official confirmed in 2019 that it closed those investigations for lack of evidence and statute of limitations.
Later that year, the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, said businesses built by Batali and a former partner Joe Bastianich exposed a pornographic culture rife with harassment and retaliation to the extent that it violates state and city human rights laws.
As part of the settlement, the two men, and the company they once owned together, paid $600,000 to be split among at least 20 women and men who were sexually harassed while they worked at homes. stores in Manhattan, Babbo, Lupa, or Del Posto, which until it closed permanently in April 2021 is the crown jewel among men’s holdings.
