Two of the three women who went on a drunken rampage and trashed a popular Lower Eastside eatery when they were asked to pay an additional $1.75 for extra dipping sauce to dip their fries in, appeared in a Manhattan criminal court on Friday.
Chitara Plasencia, 25, and Tatiyanna Johnson, 23, walked into the downtown court building to face the judge in the July 3 incident that took place at a Bel Fries on Ludlow Street.
The long-braided Plasencia accompanied by an unidentified male shouted, ‘What’s wrong with ya’ll?’ before he started waving his arms and ordered those nearby to ‘Back up! Back up!’
He griped: ‘We’re not doing this!’ As Placencia walked a few steps ahead, the man pulled her back and said, ‘Yo, come back. Don’t,’ as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
Plascenia scowled and said to someone nearby: ‘Come any closer to me. I dare you.’ The younger Johnson appeared more subdued as she walked through the courthouse and down a set of stairs.
A female adult who was with her grimaced before saying: ‘You guys are … ‘ before the courthouse doors closed behind her.
The third assailant, 27-year-old Pearl Ozoria, who reportedly punched one of the officers in the face as she was being apprehended during the violent food fight, had posted bail after being taken into custody, and was not in court on Friday.
Ozario, who resides on the Upper Westside, now faces charges of robbery, criminal mischief, assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct, an NYPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Friday.
Both Plascenia and Johnson, both from Brooklyn, are facing charges of robbery, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon, the spokesperson said.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office told DailyMail.com that as of 3:30 pm, their case has not yet been called.
Six employees of Bel Fries who were working at the restaurant the night of the criminal act are now terrified to come back to work.
The restaurant’s co-owner told NBC4 New York that the six employees ‘no one wants to come back to work because they’re traumatized and scared for their lives,’ he said.
‘They’re devastated. They’re afraid. One of them still doesn’t want to leave her home. She has a son. She fears for her life,’ said the co-owner, who did not want to be identified.
Analee Schlossberg, who also owns Bel Fries told CBS News ‘it’s a nightmare,’ and called out their bad behavior.
‘There’s something going on with them, and it didn’t have to do with us, clearly, because it was over sauce,’ said Schlossberg, in part.
Schlossberg also pointed out the cheers they were getting from outside spectators made the situation a whole lot worse. ‘As mad as these women were, as crazy as they were acting, I think that was egging them on,’ she said.
The restaurant reopened on Thursday. Schlossberg said she hired a security guard to work through the weekend, as they sorted out some new safety measures, the news outlet reported.
‘My number one priority is making sure all of my employees are not only physically okay but mentally okay,’ she said, in part.
The wild scene broke up in the early hours of July 3 when three intoxicated women entered the Lower Eastside restaurant, Bel Fries, located on Ludlow Street and were told by restaurant employees that they would have to pay an additional $1.75 for the extra sauce.
When the women learned they would have to pay more money in order to get the particular sauce they were craving to dip their fries into they went into a drunken rage.
One of the women stood on the counter and began to twerk, while the other two french fries felons continued to rage and destroy property.
The trio were seen laughing as they climbed on the counter, threw restaurant stools, ripped down the partition used for COVID safety, threw bottles of sauce and unknown objects into the air as a group of spectators from outside the store cheered them on, with some recording the melee.
A NYPD spokesperson said that one of the women removed approximately $10 from the cash register.
The two victims, a 33 year-old female and a 38-year-old male, sustained minor injuries to their heads as a result. The female was transported by EMS to Sinai Beth Israel, the spokesperson said.
Police said property damage was reported as a result of this incident.
The three women were taken into custody by responding officers in the vicinity of Rivington Street and Essex Street.
As the women began their tirade, an employee who filmed the incident warned them ‘you’re gonna go to jail’ as they began to cause what ultimately amounted to $10,000 to $20,000 worth of damage.
As a result of their tirade, the store has been closed since, and the two employees — a 33-year-old female and a male — suffered from head lacerations.
In the video, one of the women, wearing a white tank top, can be seen throwing something under the plexiglass barrier at an employee and appears to say something, but can’t be heard over the sound of a blaring alarm.
Her friend, wearing a blue minidress, can be seen ripping the card reader off the counter and attempting to pull it from the wires as the girl in the white tank top hops atop the counter.
The woman wearing the black dress tries, unsuccessfully, to remove her.
The woman in the white tank top breaches the employees area, as another of the women also tries to climb the counter.
Two women begin throwing a metal stool and ketchup bottles at the employees, who attempted to back up further. The third woman, in the black dress, kneels on the counter, from which she throws a lightweight trash bag at the employees before going to work on the plexiglass divider.
1.75$ for extra sauce is wild though… pic.twitter.com/XifDf4mZXX
— Fight Haven (@FightHaven) April 20, 2023