BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine
May 23, 2019
By Jacqueline Cain
The celebrity chef has been disgraced by a slew of sexual assault allegations, but he wasn’t facing any charges—until now.
NOTE: This post was updated Friday, May 24, after Mario Batali was arraigned in Boston.
After floodgates opened in December 2017 that shed light on a pattern of alleged sexual misconduct by Mario Batali, the celebrity chef is no longer profiting from the restaurant empire that launched him to fame. But he wasn’t facing any criminal charges—until now. The Boston Globe reports that Batali has been charged with indecent assault and battery, and plead not guilty to the charges on Friday morning in Boston Municipal Court.
Boston Police launched an investigation into an incident with Batali in Boston in August 2018, after a local woman told Eater New York that the chef assaulted her at a former Back Bay restaurant in 2017. The woman also filed a lawsuit against Batali.
The victim’s name is redacted in the new criminal charges, but according to the Globe, the account aligns with that plaintiff’s story. Police say the woman told them she was eating dinner with a friend at Towne Stove and Spirits when she spotted the recognizable Batali at the bar. She asked the chef for a photo, and Batali invited her to pose for a selfie with him. The woman told police that an apparently intoxicated Batali took the opportunity to grope her chest and groin without her consent, kiss her, and aggressively pull her face. The woman left the restaurant shortly after the incident, she told police. In the civil complaint she filed last summer, the woman’s lawyers said the uncomfortable ordeal left her badly shaken.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.