{"id":1472911,"date":"2022-05-12T10:44:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T14:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1472911"},"modified":"2022-05-12T10:44:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T14:44:50","slug":"celebrity-chef-mario-batali-acquitted-of-metoo-era-sexual-misconduct-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/celebrity-chef-mario-batali-acquitted-of-metoo-era-sexual-misconduct-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity Chef Mario Batali Acquitted Of #MeToo Era Sexual Misconduct Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcelebrity-chef-mario-batali-acquitted-of-metoo-era-sexual-misconduct-charges%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1472911&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/05\/Mario-Batali-scaled.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Celebrity chef Mario Batali was acquitted of sexual assault charges this week, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/government\/chef-mario-batalis-lawyer-tells-boston-judge-sexual-assault-accuser-is-lying-2022-05-10\/\"><span>Reuters<\/span><\/a><span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 61-year-old restaurateur faced up to two and a half years in prison and could have been forced to register as a sex offender if he had been convicted. Batali was on trial for allegedly groping a woman in a Boston bar in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Judge James Stanton of the Boston Municipal Court found Batali not guilty of charges of indecent assault and battery, which were filed in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The publication noted that Natali Tene, 32, claimed Batali had \u201cgroped her breasts, buttocks and crotch area and forcibly kissed her while drunkenly posing for selfies with her at a bar near Boston\u2019s Eataly, the Italian market and restaurant he at the time part owned,\u201d according to Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The judge declared that Tene had \u201csignificant credibility issues,\u201d which led to the \u201cnot guilty\u201d verdict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Stanton further asserted that even though the famed chef \u201cdid not cover himself in glory on the night in question,\u201d the photos from the evening were enough to cast reasonable doubt on the accusations of sexual misconduct. Tene posed for multiple photos over an extended period of time, plus in the snapshots there are \u201cvisible gaps between the two individuals\u201d Reuters noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cPictures tell a thousand words,\u201d Stanton said while reading the verdict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Tene\u2019s credibility was further called into question when Batali\u2019s lawyer said that she claimed to be a \u201cclairvoyant\u201d as an excuse for not serving jury duty. The court was also shown a text exchange between the woman and her friend which further tainted her accusations, per <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insider.com\/chef-mario-batali-accuser-texts-sexual-misconduct-trial-2022-5\"><span>Insider<\/span><\/a><span>. In 2018, the friend told Tene to \u201cjust play up the story\u201d when speaking to the press, to which the accuser replied, \u201cOmg of course queen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhile we\u2019re disappointed in the judge\u2019s verdict, my office will not waiver in our support for the victim in this case,\u201d Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. \u201cIt can be incredibly difficult for a victim to disclose a sexual assault.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Batali\u2019s lawyer, Anthony Fuller, claimed the assault never happened and that Tene was attempting to \u201ccash in\u201d through a pending civil lawsuit seeking more than $50,000 in damages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cShe lied for fun and she lied for money,\u201d Fuller said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s worth noting that these accusations aren\u2019t the first time Batali was accused of sexual misconduct. A four-year investigation conducted by the New York attorney general\u2019s office revealed a \u201cculture of harassment,\u201d The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/23\/dining\/mario-batali-sexual-harassment-case-settlement.html\">noted<\/a>, which included at least 20 men and women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted while working at his former Manhattan restaurants, Babbo, Lupa, and Del Posto.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Batali and his former business partner Joe Bastianich were forced to pay a settlement of $600,000 to the accusers in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celebrity chef Mario Batali was acquitted of sexual assault charges this week, according to Reuters.\u00a0The 61-year-old restaurateur faced up to two and a half years in prison and could have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":1482722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}