The owners of Alice in Over-the-Rhine said its security knew a man was inside the restroom with a woman prior to her being assaulted at the bar.
Cincinnati police said an unknown person followed a woman into the restroom at Alice on Main Street around 2 a.m. April 26. That person then strangled the woman and sexually assaulted her, police said.
In a social media statement May 24, the bar’s management said the sexual assault nearly a month earlier was “nuanced.”
“Both guests were in small groups that spent a couple of hours seemingly having a good night together,” Alice’s management said.
Management said that the bar’s security spoke with two of the people twice in the short time they spent in the restroom hallway. Security also knocked and checked on them twice during their five minutes inside a restroom, receiving “verbal OK’s at minimum” on each interaction, they said.
“Something serious was clearly going wrong, but it was outside our view,” Alice’s management said. “We didn’t know a woman needed help in there, and so we couldn’t help her.”
“That fact f***king sucks. If it’s unacceptable to you, it’s 10X as raw to us,” management continued.
In previous statement, the bar’s management said the incident was a “policy failure of allowing two guests into the same restroom.”
Management has also said they would now have “much stricter enforcement” of a one-person-per-restroom policy.
It is unclear why management at Alice allowed for two people to be in the restroom together or how often this was allowed to occur. Management did not return multiple messages asking for more information.
Alice says its overhauled security training, will redesign restrooms
In the wake of the assault, Alice has said a new manager has overhauled its training program and plans are in place to redesign the restrooms entirely.
Enhancements and additions for resolution are being added, as well as improvements to overall coverage, the bar said.
“Security also spent too much time managing logistics which diminished attention on safety, so bottlenecks are being smoothed so focus is on the right things,” the statement said.
In the meantime, the bar will be “firmly” enforcing a one-in-one-out policy for the entire restroom area, they said.
Community responds to statement as tone deaf
The statement was widely panned on Instagram, with many people describing it as tone deaf.
“Having a ‘good time together’ and ‘nuanced’ is a really backwards way of trying to shift any blame. Really bizarre way to explain what happened and not necessary to even add,” one person commented. “Using that language completely erases the victim’s experience. Disgraceful.”
“Instead of labeling it as alleged and continuously trying to minimize the incident maybe describe it as what actually happened,” another person commented.
The bar responded to the comments in a follow-up statement. They said they did not mean to diminish the incident but wanted to make people feel safer at Alice.
“We’ve needed to make it clear why one-guest-per-stall is essential, due to the number of people unhappy and telling us they feel LESS safe alone in a stall because of the incident as reported — which is the opposite of reality in this situation when the facts we’ve shared are taken into account,” the management said in a comment replying to their original statement.
Police investigation ongoing
Police initially posted a Facebook news release with a still image from video surveillance of a man wearing a gray sweatshirt, which was published by multiple news outlets including The Enquirer. However, police later deleted the post.
Both the police detective assigned to the case and department spokesman Sgt. Anthony Mitchell would not elaborate further on why the photo was removed. They would not confirm if the person whose photo was released remains a suspect.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to a city police database.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040. Callers may remain anonymous and may receive compensation for their information.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Alice OTR says security knew man, woman were in restroom during assault
Reporting by David Ferrara, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
