Celebrity chef Mario Batali faces trial over woman’s #MeToo-era groping claim
- The woman said Batali assaulted her after posing with her in 2017 for ‘selfie’ photos at a bar near Boston’s Eataly, a restaurant chain he co-owned at the time
- The allegation comes after four other women accused the chef of sexually aggressive behaviour, saying he touched them inappropriately over at least two decades
Celebrity chef Mario Batali goes on trial over allegations that he forcibly groped and kissed a woman in the only criminal case to result from multiple #MeToo-era claims of sexual harassment and assault that helped fuel his downfall.
Batali will appear in Boston Municipal Court on Monday on a 2019 charge of indecent assault and battery of a woman at a bar who came forward to report her experience after other women accused the chef of sexually aggressive behaviour.
The woman, Natali Tene, said Batali assaulted her after posing with her in 2017 for “selfie” photographs at Towne Stove and Spirits, a bar located near Boston’s Eataly, the Italian market and restaurant chain he at the time partly owned.
Batali’s lawyers have called those claims fabricated and argue Tene went to the police to bolster a lawsuit she is pursuing against him to win a monetary settlement. “Our defence is she lies and lies all the time,” Anthony Fuller, Batali’s lawyer, said at an April hearing. Tene’s lawyer declined to comment.
The case is one of a handful of criminal prosecutions of celebrities following the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, which exposed widespread patterns of sexual harassment or abuse of women in multiple spheres of American life. If convicted, Batali would face up to 2.5 years in jail and having to register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors said Tene came forward with her account after the food website Eater.com in December 2017 detailed allegations by four women who said Batali touched them inappropriately over at least two decades.
