‘Predatory’ bar manager assaulted drunk server
Defendant didn’t try to find out if victim was sober enough to consent, judge says
The “predatory” manager of a ByWard Market nightclub has been found guilty of sexual assault for taking advantage of a drunken server who was too impaired to give consent.
It’s the latest in a recent spate of incidents that highlight the perils women face in Ottawa’s restaurant and bar industry.
The victim, 19, testified that the manager, Mariano De Marinis, followed her into an upstairs bathroom where she intended to vomit on the night of Feb. 15, 2015.
The victim, whose name is shielded by a publication ban, told court she was so drunk that she was unable to resist — or give consent — as he penetrated her vagina and performed oral sex in a bathroom stall.
“At that point, she recalls being confused, unable to resist, blacking out and feeling unable to move,” Justice Calum MacLeod said, recounting evidence in the case. “She described herself as ‘feeling like a potato.’ ”
During the previous two hours, while training as a bartender during a private party, she drank about 10 shots of tequila or Jack Daniels.
De Marinis, 32, told a different story, testifying that the server had shown him naked photos on her cellphone then led him by the hand into the bathroom for a consensual encounter that ended when he realized she had “hit a wall” and was too drunk to continue.
In a judgment delivered last week, MacLeod rejected the manager’s version of events. As a bar manager trained to identify intoxicated customers and as someone responsible for the safety of his staff, the judge said, De Marinis should have known that his employee was impaired and needed protection.
“The accused made no effort whatsoever to ascertain that the complainant was sufficiently sober to consent,” MacLeod concluded, adding: “I consider the behaviour of the accused to be predatory.”
A date for sentencing has not been set.
This is the second criminal trial this year to turn a spotlight on the vulnerability of ByWard Market bar staff. In September, Philip Wilson, a downtown drug dealer, was found guilty of secretly drugging, raping and videotaping 14 women — many of them bar staff — between October 2013 and March 2015.
In October, Ottawa chef Matthew Carmichael admitted to sexually harassing three female employees at his acclaimed Ottawa restaurant Riviera. He’s now dealing with the substance abuse that he says led to his behaviour.
In the most recent case, Justice MacLeod said De Marinis used his position of authority to engage “in the worst of kind of sexism.”
In the week before the sexual assault, the bar manager asked the woman whether she had nude photographs on her cellphone, suggested she didn’t need to wear underwear to work, and made other “sexualized suggestions,” MacLeod said.
“She says she was not particularly surprised by this ‘flirty’ behaviour because it is common in the bar business,” MacLeod said in his decision. “She says she went along with it because she wanted a job.”
Court heard that on the night of the crime the woman arrived at 10:30 p.m. to begin training as a bartender, a position with the most earning potential. The club permitted staff to drink on the job: They were allowed to consume or give away up to five shots a night.
The woman drank those shots, court heard, and was supplied with more alcohol by the bar manager. At 11:30 p.m., two hours before the bathroom incident, she texted a friend to say that she was “so drunk, so happy.”
During a 10-day trial, De Marinis told court he believed the woman had consented to sexual activity. It was only when she stopped moaning during oral sex that he realized she was impaired and “not into it,” De Marinis said.
But MacLeod said the manager’s evidence had been “delivered in a manner that was bordering on glib.”
“He was clearly an intelligent and sophisticated witness who admitted that many of his activities were immoral, wrong and perhaps even illegal, but he did so with no real conviction. … His vagueness about the number of drinks he knew the complainant had drunk, the precise timing of her blackout, and his inability to describe what happened to the complainant after he left her alone in the bathroom left me entirely unconvinced.”
Court heard that after the sexual assault, De Marinis left the victim on the floor of the bathroom and took her phone and underwear with him. She later retrieved the phone, went to another bar and told her boyfriend about the incident. He convinced her to go to hospital that morning. She made a police complaint weeks later.
The owner of the bar where De Marinis worked could not be reached for comment.