It’s 11:45 on a Tuesday morning, and a 53-year-old man in rainbow wig and multi-patterned clown swimsuit with a Nikon digital camera round his neck is busily posting leaflets on palm timber and poles on a large road in Hancock Park. Then an older man steps out of a close-by home and walks towards him with a protracted, double-barreled gun.
Within the ensuing minutes, one of many males would find yourself on the bottom and the opposite in handcuffs. That is the story of how issues obtained to that time.
Mark Gallegos is an expert protester. He has been working towards his craft since round 2006, when he vented outrage towards the Roman Catholic Church outdoors church buildings in Pomona, Orange County and downtown Los Angeles. He had a private stake in that one, provided that he’d been sexually abused by a priest when he was a baby, Gallegos stated.
Since then, shoppers have employed him to call and disgrace employers and companies in numerous fields — meals service, the garment business, building staff.
Just lately, he was employed by former staff for Actual Meals Every day, a vegan restaurant with two places, one in Pasadena and one other in West Hollywood.
Paul Boettcher appears out the window of his Ye Olde King’s Head restaurant in Santa Monica in 2011. Boettcher, proprietor of a number of Southern California eating places, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a lethal weapon after a confrontation with a protester outdoors his residence in Hancock Park in January. Final month, the protester, Mark Gallegos, sued Boettcher for battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional misery.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)
The natural vegan eating places are owned and managed by Paul Boettcher, a Hancock Park resident who has run eating places along with his daughter Adaline Hobbs, together with a Silver Lake vegan spot they briefly operated known as Junkyard Canine. Boettcher additionally owns the British pub-style restaurant Ye Olde King’s Head in Santa Monica and Busby’s West, additionally in Santa Monica.
Gallegos was employed by annoyed former staff of Boettcher, he stated.
“Quite a few staff have been screwed and never paid,” Gallegos alleged.
Courtroom information present {that a} former worker of Actual Meals Every day sued the restaurant in 2023 for allegedly failing to pay her for time beyond regulation labored. The worker, Sheridan Covington, stated there was an organization coverage in place to “disproportionately spherical down” the variety of hours labored when calculating pay. Covington additionally claimed that staff needed to work by way of their meal breaks. Typically staff would work greater than 10 hours in a shift and never be paid time beyond regulation, the lawsuit claims.
In October, a video by a passing driver captured Gallegos as he was protesting outdoors Actual Meals Every day’s Pasadena location, carrying the multicolored clown swimsuit he generally wore to work and holding an indication saying “Actual Meals Every day refuses to pay vendor.”
However after protesting at Actual Meals Every day’s places for some time, Gallegos determined to up the ante.
“Workers have been telling me they have been owed 1000’s and 1000’s of {dollars},” Gallegos stated. That’s why he determined to interrupt along with his normal routine of demonstrating outdoors companies and convey the warmth to Boettcher’s neighborhood.
On Jan. 23, Gallegos dressed up within the clown outfit and headed over to Boettcher’s home on South Plymouth Boulevard. He started to put up fliers on poles and palm timber about Boettcher’s alleged mistreatment of his staff.
Gallegos stated he stayed on the sidewalk and didn’t enterprise onto Boettcher’s property.
“It was pure, on the sidewalk, 1st Modification rights. No loud music, no yelling. We’re following pointers. Particularly across the residence, you possibly can’t be disturbing the peace,” he stated.
Regardless of that, Gallegos stated, Boettcher got here out of his home with the lengthy gun and pointed it immediately in his face.
“I’ve this man charging towards me with a high-powered rifle and he cocked it he stated he was gonna shoot me, kill me, one thing to that extent. It makes me tremble and shiver [to remember],” he stated.
Video recorded on a digital camera Gallegos was carrying round his neck reveals Boettcher method the protester whereas carrying the gun below his proper arm. Boettcher seems to level the gun towards Gallegos within the video.
“I believed I used to be useless. I simply closed my eyes,” he stated.
Video reveals a person with a weapon eradicating fliers from timber after which being taken into custody by police.
Gallegos stated Boettcher then went inside, got here again out and hit him with a stick, knocking him over. The video from Gallegos’ digital camera reveals Boettcher method Gallegos a second time and stumble upon him, at which era the lens turns upward, exhibiting solely the blue sky. Boettcher doesn’t seem like holding a stick or gun throughout this interplay.
For the document:
9:04 a.m. March 6, 2024An earlier model of this text reported that Mark Gallegos known as police after he was knocked to the bottom. Based on Gallegos, a neighbor known as the police.
A neighbor known as the police.
One other video shot by Gallegos reveals Boettcher strolling out of his residence along with his fingers on his head, then backward towards officers who had blocked off the road. He kneels to the bottom within the video so officers can take him into custody.
He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a lethal weapon, authorities stated, and later launched on $30,000 bail.
The Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace despatched the case to the Los Angeles metropolis legal professional’s workplace to contemplate misdemeanor prices towards Boettcher, although no prices have been filed. Town legal professional’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the case.
Gallegos sued Boettcher for battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional misery final month. His legal professional, Hugo Salazar, stated the important thing difficulty is the liberty to peacefully protest.
“We filed civil swimsuit as a result of assault and battery that have been made towards Gallegos for exercising his 1st Modification proper to protest on a public road,” Salazar stated.
The arrest is the newest authorized difficulty for Boettcher, who, on prime of being sued by the one worker, can be suing his daughter Hobbs in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom. He claims Hobbs teamed up along with her husband to embezzle no less than $500,000 from Actual Meals Every day over 6½ years working for the enterprise. The lawsuit claims greater than $1 million in whole might have been stolen.
Boettcher claimed within the swimsuit, filed in September, that he turned conscious of the embezzlement and confronted his daughter and her husband, Thomas Hobbs, who each resigned their positions “leaving a teetering enterprise of their wake.”
The swimsuit argues that the embezzlement by the couple is the rationale the corporate is in robust monetary straits, struggling to pay distributors and staff. The Hobbses haven’t responded to the allegations but in court docket.
Boettcher stated in his grievance that after leaving the corporate, Hobbs and her husband maligned Actual Meals Every day on social media and inspired former staff to file lawsuits towards the corporate.
Boettcher didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Neither did his daughter.
