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By Phil Helsel
Celebrity chef Mario Batali is expected to be arraigned on an indecent assault and battery charge in Boston on Friday, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
Batali, 58, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court, Suffolk County District Attorney Deputy Press Secretary Renee Nadeau Algarin said in a statement to NBC Boston.
Algarin said the alleged incident occurred at a Back Bay restaurant on March 31, 2017, but did not detail the allegations.
The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that in a criminal complaint filed April 4, a woman told police that she saw Batali at Towne Stove and Spirits on Boylston Street and that she tried to take a selfie over her shoulder with the celebrity chef in the background.
Batali allegedly noticed and told woman to come over, The Globe reported. The woman allegedly went to apologize and Batali said it was OK and offered to take a selfie with her, according to the Globe.
The woman allegedly told police that Batali then grabbed her chest, kissed her and touched her without consent, The Globe reported. After she pulled away, Batali allegedly kept “pulling on her face” and then asked if she wanted to go to his hotel room and she declined, according to the newspaper.
Online court records show that there is a criminal case involving Batali and assault and battery that had a listed filing date of April 4, but the criminal complaint did not appear to be posted online.
A Massachusetts woman filed a lawsuit in August detailing similar allegations at the same restaurant, NBC Boston reported. It wasn’t immediately clear if the allegations in the reported criminal complaint and the civil suit involved the same person and incident.
An attorney speaking on Batali’s behalf said in a statement to NBC Boston that Batali denies the allegations.
“Mr. Batali denies the allegations in both this criminal complaint and the civil complaint filed last August,” attorney Anthony Fuller said in the statement to the station Wednesday night. “The charges, brought by the same individual without any new basis, are without merit. He intends to fight the allegations vigorously, and we expect the outcome to fully vindicate Mr. Batali.”
Batali was fired from ABC’s “The Chew” in December 2017 and took a leave of absence from day-to-day operations of his businesses after the foodie website Eater.com reported allegations of sexual misconduct.
Batali apologized after those allegations were reported in December, saying: “Much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong, and there are no excuses.”
In March, Batali was bought out of his restaurant group, Tanya Bastianich Manuali and Joe Bastianich of the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group said. The chef said in a statement at the time that he reached an agreement with Bastianich and no longer had any stake in the group, and wished Bastianich well.