December 15, 2021, 12:32 pm*
In the past week, 15 women have come forward—many of them via social media—to allege that they were sexually abused and/or assaulted by a team of restaurant owners in Binghamton, NY.
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The team of restaurant owners, whose LLC is called Hawley Street Hospitality, own several downtown eateries together: The Colonial, Stone Fox, and Dos Rios Cantina.
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All three restaurants closed down after the accusations went public.
Within 24 hours, all three establishments then issued a single, since-deleted statement on social media, calling the women’s claims “baseless.”
They also demanded that their servers show up for business as usual. The Colonial, in particular, insisted that they would re-open, effective immediately.
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None of the three restaurants appears to have reopened, as of the time of this writing.
Jordan Ringden and Ron Kweller are among the individuals from Hawley Street Hospitality who stand publicly accused via social media of misconduct. While there are back-channel and whisper-network messages about some of the other owners as well, it’s important to remember that not everyone with a stake in the restaurants has been accused.
Another member of the original group of co-owners, Jordan Patch, owns Animal Adventure Park just outside of Binghamton. (Animal Adventure garnered international attention in recent years as home to the late April the Giraffe.) Though Patch’s name has been mentioned in conjunction with Hawley Street Hospitality, he was not among those accused of misconduct.
Soon after the allegations surfaced, Patch issued a public statement via his personal Facebook page, announcing that he was immediately walking away from the restaurants, even though that decision meant losing his entire financial investment in the endeavor.
While some women and nonbinary people have chosen to call out their alleged abusers and assailants publicly, many continue to remain anonymous in the public eye for fear of repercussions—and because local police have told them to.
At the time of this writing, the Binghamton Police Department has publicly confirmed that they are investigating only one alleged incident, which took place on November 28th of this year. But there are many, many allegations filling the cybersphere that stretch far beyond the single incident being investigated.
Many survivors and their allies are quick to point out that the owners deliberately kept a bed in at least one of the bar basements. The owners would allegedly lure inebriated women downstairs with the promise of showing them a protected display of valuable “collectible items.” Once a young woman was isolated in the basement, the owners would allegedly assault her.
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District Attorney Mike Korchak has released a video message on his social media, asking any other victims to come forward to the authorities, and promising that the charges are being taken seriously.
A protest against the alleged sexual predators and their business enterprises took place in downtown Binghamton on Saturday, December 12.
Hundreds of protestors gathered in front of Dos Rios Cantina with signs, chanting.
The route of their planned march led protestors past Stone Fox and The Colonial as well; they also passed Dillinger’s—an establishment under different ownership where still other women have now come forward to allege that they were drugged and/or assaulted.
The protest concluded at XTASY Lounge (which is also under separate ownership from both Dillingers and the other three). It is, however, yet another locale at which women and non-binary people have recently come forward to alleged sexual harassment and assault against workers and clientele.
The group went inside and non-violently confronted the owners, as the lounge was open.
Video: Brett Merrell
The lounge owners responded by turning off the interior lighting, to render the confrontation difficult to film or photograph. It remains to be seen whether these women’s voices will be heard beyond the police-advised silence and the owners’ attempts to keep everything shrouded in darkness.
*First Published: December 15, 2021, 12:31 pm
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