Susan Clairmont: More sexual assault charges laid against former Hamilton bar owner
The number of women allegedly preyed upon by a former Hamilton nightclub owner has climbed to 11.
Sexual assault charges were laid in connection to six Hamilton area women in the summer. Now the British Columbia Prosecution Service has charged Jesse Chiavaroli, 42, with crimes against five more women - four counts of sexual assault and one count of assault with a weapon.
The B.C. charges involve alleged incidents at or near Victoria, according to the service. They include the following charges: a sexual assault on May 19, 2019; an assault with a weapon between July 3 and 7, 2019; a sexual assault on Dec. 28, 2019; a sexual assault between July 1 and Aug. 31, 2020 and a sexual assault between Dec. 19 and 20, 2020.
The charges have not been tested in court.
Publication bans protect the identities of the survivors.
When the Victoria Police Department's Special Victims Unit arrested Chiavaroli in B.C. last month, it said it did so in relation to sexual violence" associated to a bar in that city.
The Spectator has tried repeatedly to contact Chiavaroli, with no success.
Police in B.C. and Ontario accuse Chiavaroli of using his workplaces to meet his alleged victims.
In Ontario, he is alleged to have preyed on women working at clubs he co-owned or operated in Hamilton and the Niagara region.
He worked in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines from 2009 to 2015, at one time operating a St. Catharines bar called Cache.
From 2015 to 2018 he worked in Hamilton.
He was part-owner of the short-lived Baroque nightclub on John Street South. His business partner was chef Manny Ferreira and their landlord was real estate entrepreneur Joe Accardi.
Ferreira, owner of the now defunct Mezcal taco restaurant, was the subject of a 2021 Hamilton Spectator investigation that examined multiple allegations of sexual misconduct involving staff and customers at the James Street North restaurant and the downstairs bar called Uno Mas. The story led Hamilton police's sexual assault unit to launch their own investigation into Ferreira, but in the end no charges were laid. Ferreira denied the allegations.
That Spectator investigation into Ferreira turned up sexual assault allegations against Chiavaroli as well, which The Spec also wrote about. Several people told The Spec the men were good friends, partying together and using cocaine.
Ferreira, through his lawyer, declined to comment for this column.
Accardi is the co-founder of Forge & Foster, a Hamilton real estate investment and management firm.
He says having a business relationship with Chiavaroli was a mistake" he regrets.
Accardi says Chiavaroli owed him tens of thousands of dollars" when he fled" to B.C. The money was never recovered.
Accardi was introduced to Chiavaroli by Ferreira and agreed to have them set up Baroque in his building.
He had a vision for it," Accardi says of Chiavaroli's business plan.
The liquor license for the building was already in Accardi's name, he says, a holdover from when it operated at Tailgate Charlie's. The intent was for the licence to be transferred to Chiavaroli, but that never happened. Chiavaroli was not in good standing with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, Accardi says. And he continued to skirt its rules by not posting the liquor license and other infractions, Accardi says.
Chiavaroli was also not paying his rent.
Within two months of Baroque's opening, Accardi says he was working to terminate the business arrangement.
He failed to do his part," Accardi says. I wanted him out. He was a non-performing tenant."
Accardi says he knows of no complaints regarding Chiavaroli's behaviour toward female staff or patrons at Baroque. And he has not been interviewed by police.
It is unclear if any of the Hamilton charges against Chiavaroli are connected to Baroque.
Accardi was also a key investor in Mezcal. He pulled out after The Spectator's investigation into Ferreira.
Chiavaroli also ran three bars in Hess Village - Ora, Trust and Heist.
The sexual assault charges laid by Hamilton police relate to alleged incidents spanning July 1, 2015 to June 20, 2018.
Soon after the last alleged assault, Chiavaroli skipped town for B.C., leaving behind allegations of sexual misconduct and a mountain of debt.
In Victoria, Chiavaroli connected with yet another Hamilton business owner.
He worked as a bartender at Chuck's Burger Bar, owned by Chris Preston.
The restaurant was a reincarnation of the one Preston once owned on Locke Street in Hamilton. That original location abruptly shut down in 2015 following a dispute over its ventilation system.
Preston resurfaced in B.C. with a relaunch of his restaurant.
Serious sexual assault allegations concerning Chiavaroli appeared last year on a Victoria Instagram account called Survivor Stories.
Women told stories of having been plied with alcohol and possibly date rape drugs by Chiavaroli while he was tending bar. Some alleged he took them to his apartment above the restaurant and sexually assaulted them.
The posts led Victoria police to open an investigation. Soon after, citing The Spectator's reporting on Chiavaroli, Hamilton police also launched an investigation.
Preston - who has not responded to interview requests from The Spectator - fired Chiavaroli. But protests and boycotts targeted Chuck's after it was alleged Preston had received complaints about Chiavaroli in the past but didn't act. Within weeks, the business shut down.
In June 2021, Chiavaroli was arrested in B.C. and brought back to Hamilton to appear in court. He was out on bail and back on the west coast when he was arrested by the Victoria police. He is currently on bail again.
Hamilton police have said some of their complainants came forward because of The Spectator's stories.
An Ontario woman who The Spectator interviewed previously about Chiavaroli, says that telling her story publicly gave her the strength to contact police. She says she was interviewed by a Niagara Regional Police detective about witnessing an incident she believes was related to a sexual assault.
The Spectator has agreed not to identify the source because she fears for her safety.
The source says it occurred while Chiavaroli operated Cache nightclub. A patron, who was a university student, was locked in the downstairs office with Chiavaroli during a busy night at the club. When she emerged, the student was crying and distraught. The source alleges that later, the student told her Chiavaroli forced her to perform oral sex.
I just feel terrible," the source says. She was such an outgoing, beautiful girl ... She was scared of him."
It is unclear if the student is one of the Ontario complainants.
The source also told The Spectator Chiavaroli would go to Brock University in St. Catharines and approach female students to offer them free drinks at Cache.
She also said he used so much cocaine at Cache that his nose would bleed.
A different woman previously told The Spectator she saw Ferreira and Chiavaroli doing cocaine at a party and Chiavaroli's nose was bleeding. The same woman says she complied when Ferreira and Chiavaroli asked her to show them her breasts in a walk-in freezer at Mezcal. And she alleges Chiavaroli drugged and sexually assaulted her after meeting for dinner at a restaurant in Burlington.
For help:
Survivors are encouraged to report to the Hamilton Police Service Sexual Assault Unit (non-emergency line) at 905-540-5553 or www.hamiltonpolice.on.ca to file an online report. To provide information anonymously, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or online at www.crimestoppershamiIton.com.
SACHA (Sexual Assault Centre Hamilton and Area): 905-525-4162
McMaster University Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office: svpro@mcmaster.ca
SAVIS (Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Services of Halton): 905-875-1555
Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Care Centre at Hamilton Health Sciences: 905-521-2100 X73557
Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com