By PHILIP MARCELO
BOSTON (AP) — Celebrity chef Mario Batali has waived his proper to a jury trial and is opting to have a decide resolve his destiny in his sexual misconduct trial in Boston.
Batali confirmed the choice to Boston Municipal Court Judge James Stanton because the trial opened Monday morning.
In her opening assertion, prosecutor Nina Bonelli described how Batali aggressively and nonconsensually kissed and groped a lady who tried to take a selfie with him at a downtown Boston restaurant in 2017.
But Batali’s lawyer Anthony Fuller argued the assault by no means occurred and that the accuser isn’t a reputable witness and has a monetary incentive to lie.
“She’s not being truthful,” he stated. “This is being fabricated for money and for fun.”
The accuser, who is predicted to take the stand Monday, has filed a lawsuit towards Batali in search of unspecified damages for “severe emotional distress” that’s nonetheless pending in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.
Fuller additionally stated the accuser, in an effort to get out of jury responsibility, just lately pleaded responsible to mendacity throughout jury choice in one other Massachusetts legal trial as a result of she claimed she was clairvoyant.
Batali, who pleaded not responsible to indecent assault and battery in 2019, might resist 2 1/2 years in jail and be required to register as a intercourse offender if convicted. He’s anticipated to be in court docket all through the proceedings, which ought to final about two days, in accordance with prosecutors.
Batali is amongst a lot of high-profile males who’ve confronted a public reckoning through the #MeToo social motion towards sexual abuse and harassment in recent times.
The 61-year-old was as soon as a Food Network fixture on reveals like “Molto Mario” and “Iron Chef America.” But the ponytail-and-orange Croc-wearing character’s high-flying profession crumbled amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Four ladies accused him of inappropriate touching in 2017, after which he stepped down from day-to-day operations at his restaurant empire and left the since-discontinued ABC cooking present “The Chew.”
Batali has provided an apology, acknowledging the allegations “match up” with methods he has acted.
“I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team,” he stated in an electronic mail publication on the time. “My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility.”
Last yr, Batali, his enterprise associate and their New York City restaurant firm agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a four-year investigation by the New York legal professional common’s workplace into allegations that Batali, restaurant managers and different staff sexually harassed staff.
In Boston, he opened a department of the favored Italian meals market Eataly within the downtown Prudential Center in 2016 in addition to a Babbo Pizzeria e Enoteca within the metropolis’s Seaport District in 2015.
Batali has since been purchased out of his stake in Eataly, which nonetheless has dozens of places worldwide, together with in Boston, and the Babbo restaurant within the metropolis has since closed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”