The report followed concerns of the restaurant’s overcrowded patio over the weekend, which drew a violation notice from the city of Cleveland’s Department of Public Health, and Hartzell’s Facebook comment to someone concerned about adherence to safety protocols, “If you hate this country so much go back to the one you came from.”
The lawsuit, filed in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, alleges that Scene’s reports constitute defamation – the publication of knowingly false statements – in connection with the patio story as well as other unspecified reports in recent years.
Screengrabs that circulated on social media initially showed that Hartzell’s comment was in reply to a black woman, which is what the headline originally stated.
Within approximately an hour, the story was updated to reflect that the comment was made to a man of Ukrainian descent.
Regardless of the target, the comment was widely viewed as reflecting prejudice on the basis of national origin, as was acknowledged by TownHall’s owner Bobby George in a post that has since been deleted from the restaurant’s Instagram page. That deleted post acknowledged that, “Ryan’s comments were insensitive and inappropriate. They do not represent the opinion of TownHall or any of our businesses.”
The statement then went on to name the Ukrainian man, a former TownHall employee, and laid out the reasons that George believed his GM’s bigoted statements were justified.
At the end of the statement, George said Hartzell’s comments led him to conduct an internal investigation to determine if the longtime TownHall employee had made any racist comments in the past. After talking to staff, he claimed, he found no such examples, but determined that, “Ryan needs to learn from this situation. As such, he will be given a protocol of books to read and be required to undergo a sensitivity training course.”
After photos were circulated on social media of TownHall’s patio over the weekend, which opened under state guidelines issued to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the restaurant was cited in a warning letter by City of Cleveland officials who visited the location and found staff were not wearing masks, the restaurant was not enforcing proper distancing, and temperature checks had not been completed on employees prior to opening.
Scene has previously reported on TownHall and Bobby George, including within the 24 hours prior to the lawsuit being filed, during which it has conducted several interviews with former employees, variously pertaining to the restaurant’s operation, George’s management tactics, and racist and bigoted comments uttered by George to employees.
Scene has retained attorney Peter Pattakos to represent it in this lawsuit, who has issued the following statement:
“TownHall has advanced an incredible legal theory—that it should be entitled to damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress because its manager made a bigoted comment about a Ukrainian immigrant, and not a black woman as Scene had mistakenly but reasonably believed for about an hour before it revised its column. This is a classic example of an abusive lawsuit by a wealthy business owner intended to silence negative reporting about his business. With the journalism industry as challenged as it is today, especially in Cleveland, the good news here might be that Scene is more likely to recover on counterclaims against TownHall than TownHall is to recover a penny against Scene. We expect that Ohio courts will not look kindly on Mr. George’s stunt here, and look forward to vindicating Scene’s work and the First Amendment in this lawsuit.”
Scene is similarly confident of its position in this lawsuit, and will continue to report fearlessly on this and other matters on its beat.
View the lawsuit below. (Mobile users might have to switch to desktop view.)
This article appears in May 20-26, 2020.
Is a certain former suburban Mayor who sued Scene for saying mean things about him their attorney?
Won’t be going to Town Hall anymore! Fuck them!
The lawsuit sounds like a big waste of time, money, and effort to me.
Why even bother?
The lawyers will benefit, but the plaintiff should ask himself, “Is the game worth the candle?”
This was one if scene’s minor offenses but it is nice to see them being held accountable for their twisted journalism. This is probably going to deplete their little charity they’ve been collecting. They could scrap and sell those steel boxes they left all over the sidewalks.
@BONE BROTH WON’T SOLVE SCENE’S PROBLEMS: Okay Ryan.
Boycott Town Hall. Boycott Town Hall. Boycott Town Hall.
Pass the good word along and tell your friends WHY.
The Georges can kiss my ass. Don’t like that? So sue me.
How about a picket line? And if he gets tough, there are many folks in Cleveland who wiil be more than happy to get mad and happy to riot and trash that goddamned shithole. I can reach out and reply to some of them from here.
Wah wah wah…SCENE was MEANto me! Call my lawyer!
Suck it up, Bobby…you two-bit kiss-ass Donald Trump wannabe.
Make that Bobby…not that it matters…the whole Clan are all assholes.
So let me get this straight, this guy is suing for something HE HIMSELF wrote in public and he got mad because it was shared around and revealed? Lol okay. sounds like a waste of time and money and like he’s trying to intimidate.
Give ’em hell. Let them waste their cash in court only to LOSE.
I don’t live in Cleveland anymore but still keep up on happenings there. I used to work in Ohio City and frequent Townhall, but after seeing all the reporting on this and how they’ve handled the reopening I am very sorry that any of my money went to that place. Really unfortunate to see their true colors come out like this. I will be encouraging my friends that still live there not to patronize their business(es).
Everybody is so sensitive anymore.
You know what makes good financial sense after weeks and months of low sales? Costly litigation. How fucking stupid is Bobby George. This is purely an ego move.
Donald Trump’s TownHall needs to move out of Cleveland, we are not a.. go back to the country where you came from… kind of town, Townhall maybe you will find a more suitable place for your operation in the suburbs or better yet out of our most beautiful all inclusive Ohio.
Someone better check up on Jerome. Looks like he’s OD’ing on hydroxychloroquine.
Isn’t Bobby George a Trumper? Enough said.
My daughter, as always, has the last word on The Town Hall. According to her, “Town Hall is where you go when you peaked in High School.”
Scum like Townhall’s owners and clientele are why I left northeast Ohio and will never come back. I’d bet that the vast majority of owners and customers of NEOH “nightlife” aren’t much different.
You can’t keep complaining about a brain drain and an aging population, yet do everything you can as a community to make anyone with two brain cells to rub together want to flee.
That little phone emoji leaves a trail a mile wide and an inch deep. Nine…count’em…NINE rants from the overheating cell phone of the hate-filled, anti-Communist, anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-Semetic asshole who vomits onto this site 24/7…the Lone Wingnut. Writing styles don’t like, pal.
And it’s always about how “we” and all the other “patriots” are going to run the Commie Demorats and foreigners and gays and blacks and Jews out of Cleveland and America, under the banner of our Dear Orange Leader. An Army of ONE!
Give it a fucking rest you goddamned loser.
How about for even ONE goddamned day?
Make that…writing styles don’t LIE. But wingnut asshats do.
He hates journalists, too. And abortions
Probably can’t write…or make a baby, either.
What a sad sack of shit.
“Sick Of Same Shit On Different Days”
Dude, you need a life as bad as he does.
This lawsuit sucks like a closet gay man trapped in a homophobic family that throws out lawsuits like this one 😉 Hey Tony, Bobbie. I’ll say this in the nicest way possible so as to not hurt your crybaby feelings. You Suck. Your just too stupid to learn from past anger management issues. This currant lawsuit is going to go about as far as your last $400,000 one to reduce Cleveland council. God I wish I was your lawer. Daddy’s gonna buy a new boat.
Like hell you are.
This place would be an even bigger circus if someone didn’t get in their face, because it lights a fire under the butts of Sam and Vince and they get out the mop and bucket.
I know damn well there are plenty more progressive and left-leaning folks in Cleveland, but I don’t see them posting here nearly enough.
I don’t think they know what time it is. Their watches have stopped.
I bet they’re asleep. I bet they’re asleep all over America.
That makes twelve. I will sacrifice my life to SAVE my country, because I have very little left to lose. I also hate your fucking guts.
Forget high noon on Labor Day. Make it July Fourth. Fill your hand, you sonofabitch.
Whatever it takes…to cleanse this board, this city, this state, this country of right-wing scum. If I go down in the attempt, so do you.
Dear SOSSODD, they are making tremendous advances in mental heath treatment, you should look into it sometime…..soon.
Another right-wing POS heard from.
Everyone who posted partisan attacks, threats, and insults should stop doing so and google “The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills.”
This Democrats vs. Republicans political bickering is just political theater.
Instead of losing your “cool” over this political theater, why not google the net worth of the leaders of either major political party and ask yourself would these multi-millionaire politicians rather help you, the average person they don’t know, or the rich and powerful special interest groups that make large campaign contributions to them.
You’ll never find me ssosodd idiot, I’m wearing my cdc approved single cloth layer mask to protect me from the cartoon virus so I’m basically invisible. You’re old, ugly, misinformed, and spastic.
And from the way you post, you’re about fourteen years old.
Not going to go to jail for beating the shit out of some crazy kid.
First and foremost, I give Scene a lot of credit because they have never been worried about sticking their nose where it “doesnt belong” in town. Regardless of who it was said about and why, thats really professional to tell anyone to go back to whatever country theyre from, and instantly dismisses the generations of family members that have given their time, talents, and lives to make this country great. Since Town Hall clearly feels this way about people of Eastern European ethnicity and people they don’tlike in general, I’ll take my hard earned dollars and my eastern european ass elsewhere. I can name 25 Ukranian, Polish, etc eating establishments way better than Town Hall anyways. Oh, and Ive been in customer service for decades and its Business 101 you dont talk to anyone like this no matter what.
There has never been a shortage of assholes in C Town. Scene earns its stripes by browbeating and harassing anyone/anything that doesn’t fit it’s narrow-minded writers uber-leftist, politically correct world view. The George’s were just born with the obnoxious gene, so they can’t help it. But in this case, there was nothing bigoted about telling some whiney douche to go back to his own country. I’ve been told by bar owners, retailers, and even a college professor that “…if I don’t like it, I should leave…”. Fair enough. People get so caught up on their political emotions that they don’t even bother to think whether or not an opinion is truly bigoted. In this case, the managers opinion has nothing to do with bigotry, morons! Long live any business that has the balls to flip the bird in the face of social media
WTF are you babbling about? Stick that phone up your wazoo.
Go find a porn site, you sick puppy, and do your business there.
Thank you for your service, SCENE janitors.
My only regret is that Town Hall and all the other Bobby George shitholes weren’t trashed and torched. Hit the road, you POS.
It’s rumored that Bobby George paid thugs to trash bars so that all the douchebags would be forced to drink at that Town Hall shithole. You think that’s nuts? Hey, this is Cleveland. Crazier shit has happened.