After a bartender in Orange County ordered the trio removed, the bouncer violently threw them onto the street.
Three California men claim they were victims of a “gay bashing” at a Newport Beach restaurant earlier this month, when a bartender used a homophobic slur and a security guard physically threw them to the ground before shoving them out the door.
Angel Bonilla, Colton Moyer, and Clement Serafin filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on Monday, claiming that, on April 13, a female bartender at Siena Cucina Italiana “forcefully and inappropriately demanded” they show their IDs.
In court papers, the three claim the request was made “to create a ruse for refusing to serve them when her real motive was to not serve gay men.”
Three California men claim they were victims of a “gay bashing” at a Newport Beach restaurant earlier this month, when a bartender used a homophobic slur and a security guard physically threw them to the ground before shoving them out the door.
Angel Bonilla, Colton Moyer, and Clement Serafin filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on Monday, claiming that, on April 13, a female bartender at Siena Cucina Italiana “forcefully and inappropriately demanded” they show their IDs.
In court papers, the three claim the request was made “to create a ruse for refusing to serve them when her real motive was to not serve gay men.”
The bartender was then said to have looked at Serafin’s ID and declared it a fake, handing it to a bar patron who agreed it was “definitely fake,” despite all three men being over 21. “This was done with the specific intent to cause humiliation and mental suffering to plaintiffs,” the suit alleges, “because they are gay and because Bonilla is Hispanic.”
The situation escalated when the men asked to speak to a manager: The bartender then allegedly yelled at them to leave, and call them an anti-gay slur, while instructing the guard to remove them. The guard yanked a stool out from under Moyer, causing him to fall, before aggressively pushing him toward the door and onto the curb outside.
The suit states that he then grabbed Bonilla and threw him onto the curb, as well.
Cellphone video taken at Siena, which is attached to the Balboa Inn, shows the guard manhandling the two plaintiffs after the bartender orders “Get ’em out of here.”
“You’re next,” the guard can be heard telling Bonilla after throwing Moyer to the ground. He then makes good on the threat.
“You’ve been warned!” he bellows while Bonilla lies on the ground crying.
The three are seeking unspecified damages for assault, emotional distress, and violation of their civil-rights violations.
