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[UPDATE] Happy Ending Bar Releases Heavily Annotated Video From Night Of Alleged Rape
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 7, 2015
Modified Aug 7, 2015
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 7, 2015
Modified Aug 7, 2015
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[UPDATE BELOW] Ten days after a woman publicly accused a man of raping her in a bathroom at Lower East Side bar Happy Ending, the establishment has released an edited and heavily annotated video showing bits of the night in question.
The video, uploaded to Vimeo with the title "Cameras Don't Lie," shows Pepper Ellett and two friends inside and outside the bar shortly after midnight on July 29th. It also shows her briefly dancing with a man whom the bar identifies only as "the accused." In text accompanying the video, Happy Ending argues that "the surveillance cameras show something completely different" than what Ellett has alleged.
The video, however, does not show what occurred inside the bathroom between Ellett and the man she says raped her. Without audio, there is no way of knowing what was said between them before or after the alleged rape. And it should go without saying that dancing with someone is not a license for sexual assault, nor is occupying a bathroom with someone.
UPDATE 2:31 p.m.: Happy Ending's heavily-annotated video has suddenly been made password-protected on Vimeo and is not viewable to the public deleted.
In a statement placed underneath the video on Vimeo, Happy Ending claims the video shows Ellett following "the accused" "into the bathroom." However, video shows them walking in the direction of the restroom, and does not appear to show them entering it. Happy Ending claims they were inside the single-stall bathroom together for 30 minutes.
Ellett believes she was drugged at Happy Ending, and says she remembers very little of her time in the bar. But she does remember being in the restroom when "a man entered...I just saw this dick in my face and I heard a man tell me to suck his dick. And then I said no and I remember feeling trapped and I remember feeling like I was being held against my will, and then I don't remember anything after that."
When Ellett went to the hospital, she says the nurses who administered the rape kit confirmed that her injuries were consistent with sexual assault. "I have bruises all over my body," Ellett added. Despite this, police who interviewed her suggested that the sex was consensual, with one officer telling her, "Maybe you're a party girl. You know regrettable sex is not the same as rape."
Earlier this week, Happy Ending fired publicist Nadine Johnson after a "rep" from the bar told the NY Post, "The CCTV tapes show clearly that the alleged victim was seen kissing at the bar with the employee and was seen entering the bathroom of her own free will. It shows a 90 percent chance it was consensual behavior."
In response to bar's "90 percent" estimate, Ellett said, "It is deeply disturbing that my experience, which I believe starts with me being drugged (at Happy Ending) and I know ends with me being raped (at Happy Ending), has been met with an absurd and fabricated statistic that is clearly intended to explain away this assault."
The Happy Ending "team" would not confirm today that the alleged rapist is or was an employee, and the text accompanying the video does not identify him as such. But Happy Ending told us on Monday that "the employee in question was fired immediately that evening."
An NYPD spokesperson said today that no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
UPDATE 2:36 p.m.: Because Happy Ending has made the "Cameras Don't Lie" video private, here is a screengrab of the statement that accompanied the video when it was up:
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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