Chef Batali is cleared of rap in bar groping
Mario Batali was acquitted Tuesday of allegedly groping a fan at a Boston bar in 2017.
The celebrity chef, 61, was found not guilty of indecent assault and battery in a trial that lasted less than two days, during which he did not testify.
His accuser, 32-year-old Natali Tene, testified that she asked Batali for a selfie at Towne Stove and Spirits in March 2017, only to be assaulted while she posed smiling.
“His right hand was all over my breast. All over my rear end. He was grabbing me in a way that I had never been touched before. Squeezing in between my legs. Squeezing me in my vagina to pull me closer,” Tene testified Monday.
“It was all happening so quickly, and it was happening essentially the whole time ... I shouldn’t even say in which order. But there was touching of my breasts. Touching my sensitive feminine areas in between my legs. Touching all over my face. His lips on the side of my face. His tongue in my ear. Just a lot of touching.”
Batali’s attorney argued that Tene had limited credibility, specifically pointing to her attempts to get out of jury duty by pretending to be clairvoyant.
His lawyer, Anthony Fuller, also claimed that Tene only came forward as a money grab after other women made similar allegations against Batali (photo). Tene is also suing the chef for $50,000 in damages in a separate lawsuit.
“Photos and video don’t lie. They don’t have a financial motivation,” Fuller said. “But she does.”
Batali settled misconduct cases with at least 20 men and women for about $600,000 in New York last year, cut ties with all of his restaurants in 2019 and stepped down from “The Chew,” which he co-hosted from 2011 to 2017.
In December 2017, as the allegations piled up and his business partners jumped ship, Batali apologized for his misdeeds in a newsletter that included a recipe for pizza dough cinnamon rolls.
“I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry,” he wrote. “My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility.”