Gay Bar Sues Comedienne Who Said Bartender Drugged Her – Newsweek

The Abbey—a gay bar in the West Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California—has filed a lawsuit against Haely White, a comedienne who publicly accused its bartender of drugging her drink.

On August 3, White said via social media that said she was “severely drugged by a bartender” during her July 29 visit to The Abbey. She told her social media followers to “spread the word” and boycott the bar, the bar’s lawsuit states.

But security footage from White’s July 29 visit reportedly showed that neither Abbey personnel nor any other person had tampered with her drink, the bar said. Even after the bar let White review the footage, she allegedly didn’t change her original social media post, which had since been shared numerous times online, the bar’s suit alleges.

The comedienne and the bar eventually reached a settlement releasing White from any liability as long as she prominently posted a corrected statement on her various social media accounts by 4 p.m. local time on Saturday, August 14, Spectrum News reported.

However, the bar’s lawsuit said that she didn’t post the statement as promised. It also said that a subsequent social media post effectively retracted her correction.

In her corrective statement, she mentioned that the bar denied that the two bottles used to make her drink were tampered with in any way. The bottles had been used to make other patrons’ drinks, she said the bar told her. The bar received no other claims of drugging from other people whose drinks contained the same ingredients, she added.

White’s statement then apologized for her inaccurate statements and to bar employees negatively impacted and threatened due to them. “I believe their actions demonstrate that they are concerned about the safety of their patrons and take measures to make their establishment safe,” she wrote.

However, after posting the corrective statement, White reportedly posted a follow-up statement to Instagram.

In the statement, she wrote that the bar’s video footage also showed her collapsing off her booth seat and being assisted out of the bar by a friend shortly after having her drink. She wrote that she had a “completely coherent” phone conversation with her husband 15 minutes before entering the bar. She also said that she had one other drink at least an hour before getting her drink at The Abbey.

“I also have NEVER felt so sick in my life with one exception — when I was roofied many years ago…” she reportedly wrote.

The Abbey’s lawsuit accuses White of defamation, trade libel, breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. It seeks over $5 million in damages due to the bar’s alleged “substantial” loss of business and cancellations following her initial accusations.

“The Abbey’s lawsuit against me is nothing more than bullying and victim shaming,” White wrote in a statement to Newsweek. “I had resolved the situation with them by issuing a corrective statement that they signed off on and that I still stand behind—yet in an act of bad faith they turned around and sued me despite my doing what they asked, even though everything I’ve said since then is consistent with the corrective statement. This is nothing more than an effort to silence me.”

Update (8/19/2021, 9:29 p.m.): This article has been updated to include a statement from White.

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