Celeb chef Mario Batali has agreed to settle lawsuits by two girls alleging he sexually assaulted them in separate encounters in Boston, one among whose accusations had been the main focus of a #MeToo-era prison prosecution that led to his acquittal.
Legal professionals for Natali Tene, whose claims had been on the coronary heart of Batali’s trial in Might, and Alexandra Brown confirmed late on Tuesday they’d resolved their separate lawsuits in state court docket in Boston in opposition to Batali.
“The issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of all events,” attorneys Eric Baum and Matthew Fogelman stated in a joint assertion. “We can not remark additional because of confidentiality obligations.”
The docket in Tene’s case confirmed {that a} listening to set for Tuesday was lately known as off as a result of the case had been settled.
Batali’s lawyer, Anthony Fuller, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Tene’s claims fashioned the idea of the one prison case to outcome from numerous #MeToo-era allegations of sexual harassment and assault by girls in opposition to Batali, as soon as a fixture of Meals Community and a star of the ABC cooking and discuss present The Chew.
Tene, 32, had stated Batali in 2017 groped her breasts, buttocks and crotch space and forcibly kissed her whereas drunkenly posing for selfies together with her at a bar close to Boston’s Eataly, the native department of the Italian meals market and restaurant that on the time he partly owned.
She filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to him in 2018. Batali was charged in 2019 with indecent assault and battery.
His attorneys argued that Tene fabricated the story to win a financial settlement. After a non-jury trial, a decide acquitted Batali, saying Tene had “important credibility points” and that her photographs didn’t again her claims.
Tene’s attorneys additionally represented Brown, who individually sued Batali in 2019 and accused him of equally sexually assaulting her whereas posing for selfies at a special Boston restaurant in 2016.
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