A 31-year-old woman says that she was sexually assaulted inside a restroom at Alphabet City restaurant Villa Cemita on Sunday night. According to Ingrid Ostby, a man who described himself variously as the restaurant's manager, owner and mixologist pushed into the eatery's single-occupancy bathroom as she unlocked it to exit, put his hands around her waist and bottom, and attempted to kiss her.
In the lead-up to the incident, Ostby says the man brought her and her friends three rounds of tequila shots. One of Ostby's four companions, 32-year-old Megan Doherty, says that she experienced symptoms that led her to believe that she had been drugged.
(via Facebook).
Ostby publicized the incident on her Facebook page on Sunday. She and her friends are comedians with ties to the Upright Citizens Brigade, and had attended a show at UCB East, next door to Villa Cemita, earlier that night. "I want to protect our community," she told us on Monday, citing Villa Cemita's proximity to the venue.
According to Ostby and Doherty, the group of five friends had already received their check on Sunday when a man who described himself as the restaurant's owner, manager and mixologist came up to their table and offered them a discount on their next meal. "We were a group of five women out at night, and this kind of thing happens, so we were trying to be nice," Ostby recalled. "When he first came over I didn't see that he was drunk, but he kept repeating himself and saying his name over and over again."
The man brought three rounds of shots to the table. Doherty was texting with a friend throughout, and a screenshot of her conversation suggests that shots came to the table at ten-minute intervals—at 9:11, 9:21, and 9:31. "The bartender just brought us tequila shots," she wrote. And then, "Okay he's bringing more shots" and "Okay more shots... needs to chill."
Doherty said on Monday that one of the shots she took was cloudy. "We thought, it's fine, we're safe. (A foolish thought for any woman)," Ostby wrote on Facebook.
"I was really disoriented and had a hard time walking," Doherty said. "I got home, but I had a hard time speaking and moving my legs."
Ostby recalls that everyone in the group took turns using the single-occupancy, unisex bathroom around a corner from the restaurant's main dining area. The door to the bathroom had a lock on it, and Ostby says that she was unlocking the door to exit when the self-proclaimed mixologist/manager pushed in. "As he was pushing the door in he said something to the effect of, 'I'm so glad you came in tonight,'" she recalled. "And he put one hand on my ass and went to kiss me so I threw my hands up and said, 'Are you fucking kidding me?' and shoved past him."
Kim Parker, one of Ostby's friends, recalled on Monday that Ostby ran out of the restaurant while she and the others stayed behind to decide what to do with the tip. "He walked out from the back and I started talking to him, which quickly turned to yelling," she said. "I told him, 'You don't put your hands on someone you don't know.'" Parker said that he "kind of hung his head down like a kid who is being reprimanded," but did not apologize. "He said something along the lines of 'I didn't do it,'" she recalled.
A January review of Villa Cemita identifies Omar Cuatzo as the front-house manager of the restaurant, and the son of the owner, Alejandra Aco. Omar's sister, Doreli Cuatzo, is also listed as a manager.
A woman who answered the phone at Villa Cemita this afternoon hung up when we requested comment on the incident, but someone listed as "Doreli C., Business Owner" responded to the assault warnings that began popping up on Villa Cemita's Yelp page Sunday evening (the response has since been deleted).
(via Parker).
Doreli C. wrote that the alleged attacker, or "mixologist," was neither the owner nor the manager of the restaurant, and that, "I am aware that he was extremely intoxicated." She added that the man in question is "under suspension while we investigate the matter" and "will be terminated" if "this in fact happened."
According to message, the restaurant reviewed surveillance footage from outside the bathroom:
After watching the footage of the surveillance system we saw that the mixologist entered the bathroom just by turning the door handle. Meaning that the door was unlocked, so naturally he assumed that nobody was in the bathroom. I can't say what happened inside because we obviously don't have cameras.
Ostby accused the restaurant of victim-blaming. "Why would any women in a unisex bathroom not lock the door?" she said. "Every woman in this city locks a door when she takes off her underpants, especially in unisex bathrooms."
Ostby and Doherty filed an assault complaint with the NYPD's 9th Precinct earlier today. A spokesperson for the 9th Precinct Detective Squad would neither confirm nor deny an ongoing investigation.
[UPDATE 5:45]:Ryan Blanch, the attorney for the alleged assaulter, confirmed that his client is Omar Cuatzo, the son of the restaurant's owner.
"Mr. Cuatzo, the bartender, vehemently denies any wrongdoing and looks forward to defending himself in a forum more suitable to the allegations than the social media and review sites chosen by the complainant," he said in a statement. "He has never before been accused of any similar conduct and looks forward to telling his side of the story at the appropriate time and place."
