Mario Batali’s accuser did not appear on camera. The judge in the celebrity chef’s trial, which began in Boston on Monday, ordered that CourtTV’s airing of live testimony could not show the face of the woman who has accused Batali, once considered one of the most powerful figures in the food world, of indecent assault and battery.
Mario Batali’s accuser details alleged assault as his trial begins
Instead, the cameras focused largely on Batali, who become the first chef to face criminal charges as part of a #MeToo movement that, over the past five years, has called out several men in the hospitality industry, including John Besh in New Orleans, Charlie Hallowell in Oakland, Calif., and Mike Isabella in D.C. Batali sat mostly impassively as he listened to the 32-year-old accuser recall the alleged assault at a Boston restaurant in the early morning hours of April 1, 2017.
Batali, 61, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. On Monday, he waived his right to a jury trial, so the chef’s fate is in the hands of Judge James Stanton, who spent much of the day listening to the woman’s testimony under direct questioning and cross-examination. If found guilty, Batali could face 2½ years in jail and be required to register as a sex offender.
According to the accuser’s testimony, she was dining with a friend at Towne Stove and Spirits in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood when Batali caught her snapping a furtive photo of him. Batali motioned her over to his bar stool. She was prepared to apologize for snapping his picture without permission, she testified, and even ready to delete it. But Batali, she said, encouraged her to take selfies with him. Over the next three minutes, she said, she snapped photos and short videos with Batali, who remained seated while she stood next to him.
Nina Bonelli, Suffolk County assistant district attorney, asked the woman to describe what was going on in the photos and short “live photo” videos — and what was occurring outside the frame. The woman testified that Batali was to her left as she took photos with the phone in her right hand.
“His right hand is all over my breasts, all over my rear end, in between my legs, grabbing me in a way that I’ve never been touched before like that — like squeezing in between my legs, squeezing my vagina to pull me closer to him, as if that’s a normal way to grab someone,” she testified. She also said, at one point, that an obviously drunk Batali put his tongue in her ear.
“I was really shocked, surprised, alarmed,” she testified.
After a few minutes, she testified, she was looking for a way out of the situation, but then Batali suggested she meet up at his room at the Mandarin Oriental, a hotel close to Eataly, an Italian marketplace that counted Batali among its owners. She said “chills, like, came over my body when he asked me to join him at the hotel room.” She testified that she declined the invitation and, shortly after, left the restaurant.
She testified that she did not tell her close friend about the incident until a week or so later, because the friend was going on vacation and she did not want to spoil the trip. When her friend returned, she said, she shared the details of the alleged assault. They agreed that, given Batali’s alleged behavior, they would “never eat at Eataly again,” she said.
On cross-examination, Batali’s attorney, Anthony Fuller, sought to pick apart the woman’s testimony. He displayed bank statements that showed she had dined at Eataly about four weeks after the alleged incident with Batali. Fuller also pointed out that she had returned to Towne, suggesting such a choice didn’t make sense if it had been the scene of such an allegedly traumatic assault.
“Towne wasn’t the scary place,” she responded. “It was the scary person that was triggering.”
Fuller also questioned the woman about an apparent contradiction in the photos and videos that she took with Batali. Why did they not show any of the behaviors she alleged, the attorney wondered, and why did she appear to be smiling in them?
The woman said that “the hands that are grabbing me are not in the video” and that she tends to laugh and smile when she finds herself in an uncomfortable situation. “It looks like I’m smiling because I’m a very smile-y, laugh-y person,” she testified. “I try to de-escalate the situation. That’s kind of my response.”
Fuller also attacked the woman’s credibility. He noted that she had filed a separate civil suit, in which she seeks damages from Batali over the alleged incident. Fuller pointed out that, during the jury selection for a criminal trial in 2018, she wrote she was “clairvoyant” on a questionnaire. The woman did not deny it. She testified that she has an ability to predict major events “to a certain extent.”
“The defense in this case is very simple: This didn’t happen,” Fuller said in his opening remarks. “There was no indecent assault. … By the end of it, you’ll realize that she’s not telling the truth.”
Batali all but disappeared from public view after media outlets such as Eater, the New York Times and The Washington Post began reporting about the chef’s alleged sexual misconduct. Batali issued an apology, saying in an email newsletter the week after the initial allegations were reported that he took “full responsibility” — and offering a recipe for cinnamon rolls.
One woman accused Batali of raping her at the Spotted Pig, a Manhattan restaurant where the chef was an investor. In 2019, the New York City Police Department shut down three investigations of Batali’s alleged sexual misconduct, either because there was not enough evidence or the incidents occurred beyond the statute of limitations.
In 2019, Batali dissolved his longtime partnership with members of the Bastianich family, with whom he once operated dozens of restaurants and other food establishments, in locations from New York to Hong Kong. Batali also sold his shares in Eataly. Last year, Batali, his former business partner Joseph Bastianich and their company agreed to pay $600,000 to more than 20 former employees after an investigation by the New York attorney general’s office found that Batali, restaurant managers and others had sexually harassed workers.
The other sexual allegations against Batali are part of the reason, his accuser testified, that she went public with her own accusations. After reading an Eater investigation, she said, “I thought: ‘Wow, this is real. This isn’t just one night in town. This is constant.’”
Source: WP
