Mario Batali was found not guilty on Tuesday of indecent assault and battery after being accused of groping and kissing a woman while taking a selfie outside a Boston restaurant in 2017.
The first celebrity chef to face criminal charges as part of the #MeToo movement, Batali was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge after a two-day trial at Boston Municipal Court in which he declined his right to a jury. What amounted to a gamble by the disgraced chef effectively worked out when the judge suggested Batali had effectively been canceled already. And the judge again sided with the defense in suggesting his accuser had a questionable motive, despite corroboration of her account.
“The compliant witness has severe credibility issues,” Judge James Standon said, noting that he believed the issues “support the defendant’s contention that her motive is financial gain.”
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Prosecutors said Batali sexually assaulted Natali Tene on April 1, 2017, at Towne Stove and Spirits in Boston. The since-shuttered bar was located near the local outpost of Eataly, the Italian chain Batali once partly owned.
Batali has steadfastly denied criminal conduct, despite at least four women coming out against the former TV chef and accusing him of sexual misconduct since 2017. His defense team, which did not put forward any witnesses, argued that Tene had a monetary incentive to lie—noting that she was seeking more than $50,000 in damages in a civil suit against Batali.
“The commonwealth is asking you to convict somebody on the word of somebody who is an admitted liar. She will say whatever helps her in the moment,” defense attorney Tony Fuller said during closing arguments on Tuesday.
One of just two witnesses who testified in the trial on behalf of the prosecution, Tene said what began with her taking a surreptitious photo of Batali ended with violence.
“It was all happening so quickly and it was happening essentially the whole time,” Tene said on Monday. “Just a lot of touching.”
As she took about 10 selfies with Batali after the chef noticed her trying to snap a photo, Tene told Judge James Stanto, the chef began touching her out of the camera’s view. She also said Batali’s eyes were closed in a majority of the photos, and claimed “this guy was wasted” at the time.
“His right hand is all over my breasts, all over my rear end, in between my legs, grabbing me in a way that I’ve never been touched before like that—like squeezing in between my legs, squeezing my vagina to pull me closer to him, as if that’s a normal way to grab someone,” Tene testified, noting that as the alleged assault occurred, she was “really shocked, surprised, alarmed.”
During cross-examination, Tene conceded that there was a three-minute gap between some of the photos. But she emphasized that Batali was “grabbing my ass” in at least one photo.
After the incident, Tene testified, Batali suggested she meet him at his room at the Mandarin Oriental, a proposal she said she declined but that gave her “chills.” Tene’s friend, Rachel Buckley, testified on Tuesday that Tene told her about being assaulted in a conversation not long after the incident.
“I think she was pretty uncomfortable but trying to laugh it off, as though it wasn’t a big deal, and then I think it kind of struck her as a big deal later on,” Buckley told the judge, noting that Tene told her that Batali touched her thighs, breasts, and groin.
Batali was forced to step down from his empire and leave the ABC cooking show The Chew as accusations piled up against him.
