By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for Mario Batali urged a judge on Tuesday to acquit the celebrity chef of a charge that he sexually assaulted a woman while posing with her for “selfie” photographs in 2017 at a Boston bar, accusing her of fabricating the incident.
Defense lawyer Anthony Fuller and Assistant District Attorney Nina Bonelli delivered closing arguments to Judge James Stanton on the second day of the non-jury trial in Boston Municipal Court. It is the only criminal case Batali, 61, has faced over #MeToo-era allegations made by multiple women that he engaged in sexual misconduct.
Natali Tene, 32, testified that Batali groped her breasts, buttocks and crotch area and forcibly kissed her while drunkenly posing for fan selfies with her at a bar in April 2017 near Boston’s Eataly, the Italian market and restaurant he at the time part owned.
Fuller argued that the assault never occurred and that Tene had a financial incentive to lie because of a pending civil lawsuit she has filed against Batali seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
The defense lawyer said Tene was trying to “cash in” on her encounter with Batali despite a lack of other witnesses at the bar and photos that not only did not depict an assault but did show Tene not even flinching during the alleged groping.
“She lied for fun and she lied for money,” Fuller told the judge. “That’s what the evidence shows.”
Prosecutor Bonelli countered that case was never about money and that Tene decided to come forward after the website Eater.com in December 2017 detailed allegations by four women who also said Batali had touched them inappropriately over at least two decades.
“Ms. Tene realized she wasn’t alone,” Bonelli told the judge. “Ms. Tene couldn’t be silent anymore, and she spoke up. And that was and is her motive.”
The case will be decided by Stanton after Batali on Monday waived his right to a jury trial.
Batali, once a fixture of Food Network and a star of the ABC cooking and talk show “The Chew,” faces 2-1/2 years in jail and prison and having to register as a sex offender if convicted.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)
