Incident at Cafe Rendevous last Friday

One LAST thing- nor has my husband ever been arrested. And to answer the question of why he became upset: my husband is a heavily accented Hispanic gentleman who felt he had been discriminated upon by another bar patron and the staff. After paying $58.00 for a glass of wine (just what are they serving at Cafe Rendezvous?) I imagine I would have been upset too...

CJane, I thought the newspaper article was worded a little wrong about the check total and the reference to the man having only one drink. I was guessing that there was also food on that check, but the reporter had left that out, leaving the reader to believe that the one glass of wine cost $58. Your statement above sounds as though the man was charged $58 for one glass of wine. Is that accurate? I know wine is costly, but unless they are selling Grand Cru's, Dominus, Opus One, or something by the glass, I find it difficult to believe than any non-wealthy person would pay $58 for one glass of wine. Were other people drinking on his tab?

Can you elaborate on how your husband was discriminated? Was it because he isn't French? It seems this case has nothing but question marks.

I would also like to point out that for certain cell carriers, it is well known that Seaside is a black hole as far as signal is concerned. And that even though those calls/texts are in the wifes cell it doesnt mean that they actually went through to the other persons phone.

you have a police department with a history of complaints and a shady cafe most residents would like closed.why then would you not believe this could happen?the news account was far from factual and painted a poor image of the patron and the events.a view of the tardy police report will verify that.why so much trouble to hide the truth we are all entitled to?calamity keep up the good fight!to the rest of you lend your support and don"t give up your rights one at a time.

you have a police department with a history of complaints and a shady cafe most residents would like closed.why then would you not believe this could happen?the news account was far from factual and painted a poor image of the patron and the events.a view of the tardy police report will verify that.why so much trouble to hide the truth we are all entitled to?calamity keep up the good fight!to the rest of you lend your support and don"t give up your rights one at a time.

Residents of Seaside - really? I thought people lived there only in the movies. BTW, you just accused 90% of the people in South Walton of hangin out in "shady" places. Nice.

Thank you swordfish. It is difficult when it is your family being slandered and smeared across the papers and sowal. There is a HUGE issue here that has not really been addressed- there are NO witnesses to this incident at all. Not one person to verify that the story printed in the paper ( my husband becoming disorderly and hitting the bartender), the story that Ms Jodi was so kind as to embellish with her own ridiculous accounts of adulterous behavior. Therefore, this incident really has not happened at all. Who will come out more credible? Two college educated, professional parents quietly raising their family in this community or "shady" staff at the bar? Has anybody else not noted that I am making a blanket request for witnesses to go directly to FDLE? I do not need to talk to them because I already know what happened. This places the ones telling the truth in a position of power and lends the other side defenseless to continue fabricating a story without knowing what information has been delivered. The newspaper also did not account the threat and intimidation both my husband and I have undergone to not pursue this. When this investigation is completed and the truth is printed, with our good names cleared, I hope that you who have stood so viciously in judgement will consider for a moment the enormity of all of this...

Not one person to verify that the story printed in the paper ( my husband becoming disorderly and hitting the bartender), the story that Ms Jodi was so kind as to embellish with her own ridiculous accounts of adulterous behavior.

Excuse me Ms Calamity..but NOT ONCE did I (nor anyone else on the forum) ever mention anything regarding "adulterous behavior" and that just seems to me that maybe you dont really trust the man as much as you like to profess. I have done nothing but give my own opinions on this this matter so if I embellished anything it was not the actions of your spouse OR the actions of the staff at Cafe Rendezvous.

the threat and intimidation both my husband and I have undergone to not pursue this.

I can tell you one thing from working in several establishments that serve alcohol (or ANY place of business for that matter), when a patron becomes disorderly you can bet that the authorities will be on the side of that business owner and NOT on the side of the unruly patron. Maybe the ones making these so-called "threats" are just trying to save you and your family more embarrassment/ money by letting you know that with no witnesses and a victim whos memory is cloudy at best, there isnt much of a chance of you being on the winning side of this debacle.

there are NO witnesses to this incident at all.

I do not need to talk to them because I already know what happened.

OH really? Now you are saying that you were there? Or are you just going on info (third party and therefore not admissible in court) given to you by a spouse caught in a bad position at an establishment that you are labeling "shady" due to one incident?
And another little tidbit of MY OPINION......if I was the owner of this establishment I wouldnt waste another moment of my time on some "sue-happy" person trying to create a situation that there is obviously no grounds for just to garner attention and possibly profit from when there is obviously no evidence of misconduct on their part.
And just because you have taken it to the ASA doesnt mean that they are going to find anything to back up your claims or that you will be successful in your bid to slander/libel this place of business into closing. In my opinion...your best bet would be to drop it and tell the hubby to stop visiting shady bars til the wee hours of the morning.

CJ, I dont know you or your husband. I am making the following statements based only on what I have read here and in the paper.
~ Just b/c your husband goes our to a bar and you are not with him does not make him a "cheater". If someone accuses him of that then they themselves may have their own personal problems. Husband and wive can party seperately. ;-)
~ I do think that it is strange, very very strange, that not one single person is speaking up.
~My cell phone works in Seaside.
~ I dont think Rendevous is "shady" but I also dont think that 90% of Walton County residents go there either.
~$58? glass of wine? a ticket was either padded or someone had more than they thought...

Thank you swordfish. It is difficult when it is your family being slandered and smeared across the papers and sowal. There is a HUGE issue here that has not really been addressed- there are NO witnesses to this incident at all. Not one person to verify that the story printed in the paper ( my husband becoming disorderly and hitting the bartender), the story that Ms Jodi was so kind as to embellish with her own ridiculous accounts of adulterous behavior. Therefore, this incident really has not happened at all. Who will come out more credible? Two college educated, professional parents quietly raising their family in this community or "shady" staff at the bar? Has anybody else not noted that I am making a blanket request for witnesses to go directly to FDLE? I do not need to talk to them because I already know what happened. This places the ones telling the truth in a position of power and lends the other side defenseless to continue fabricating a story without knowing what information has been delivered. The newspaper also did not account the threat and intimidation both my husband and I have undergone to not pursue this. When this investigation is completed and the truth is printed, with our good names cleared, I hope that you who have stood so viciously in judgement will consider for a moment the enormity of all of this...

Now I'm wondering why your husband would patronize a place you call "shady," and which you state everyone wants to see closed, to buy a $58 glass of wine. I think there is so much more to this story than any of us know. You accuse us of slander, and I fail to see that. Could you point out the slander to you and your husband? The truth is that only the people involved know what happened. First you mention that your husband doesn't remember anything other than getting knocked out, and waking up with injuries. Now, you say that you and he know exactly what happened. That leaves us wondering who knows what. I don't mean to drag this thing out, but there seem to be accusations without evidence. If you have your evidence, present your case.

Now I'm wondering why your husband would patronize a place you call "shady," and which you state everyone wants to see closed, to buy a $58 glass of wine. I think there is so much more to this story than any of us know. You accuse us of slander, and I fail to see that. Could you point out the slander to you and your husband? The truth is that only the people involved know what happened. First you mention that your husband doesn't remember anything other than getting knocked out, and waking up with injuries. Now, you say that you and he know exactly what happened. That leaves us wondering who knows what. I don't mean to drag this thing out, but there seem to be accusations without evidence. If you have your evidence, present your case.

I agree SJ, I am intrigued by this. I feel for her in a way, mad in another and then am confused in another. Obviously there is much more to this story that we may never ever know. I hate getting interested in unsolved mysteries!!!

It is like that TV show, "Cold Case," where we never know who done what, but during the hour-long show, we start making our own little mini-movies about "who done it."

CJane, it does stink that your hubby was hit and sent to the hospital. I'd be a little more than upset if that happened to anyone I know. There are just too many unknowns for any of us to start making judgments and taking sides with either party involved. We are just rubberneckers who are too curious. Maybe you will report back to us after the commercial break.

Police misconduct allegations have been filed with state attorney Bill Eddins against WCSO for deliberately covering up a battery against a local resident outside of Cafe Rendezvous by their own staff. The police have assured this gentleman that there were no local witnesses to the incident, although they did not interview anyone at the scene..that gentleman has been left with a closed head injury and inability to return to work. Anyone who witnessed this event with EMS involved, please have the courage to stand up with another local who is not afraid to take a stand.....

If the State does conduct an investigation, who will investigate? The investigator up in DFS (ASA's) is the wife of a WCSO Deputy, might that be a conflict of interest?

How about some of the truth?

As the facts in this have been so distorted, we have decided to disclose some of the truths we had hoped would come forward in the paper. We have the incident report and the full trurh between the two of us, so here goes:
- my husband never punched the bartender. This was not an act of self defense, but an aggravated battery upon my husband by 2 staff members. This incident occured in the parking lot 100s of feet from the door, and I would say far beyond what would be appropriate for bar employees to be involved in.
- my husband sustained a blow to the temporal region of his brain rendering him immediately unconscious. He sustained a closed head injury and subsequent concussion when he hit the ground
- his phone was taken from him while he tried to call EMS
-the incident report states the bartender did not want to press charges. My husband was not a suspect
- My husband was transported to the hospital without police escort. He was not a suspect
-Deputies arrived on their own at the hospital and threatened him for hours until he agreed to not press charges. He made multple requests that I be called and I was not
-Deputies arrived at my door at 3:30 am and delivered a fabricated story. I was intimidated and one threat was so low as to involve my baby
-We went to the station together Sat am to file a complaint of battery against the staff at the bar. We were denied the right to do so, and uncovered there was no incident report. There was a civilian witness to this who agreed to stand as a witness and I was prevented from getting his name and phone number from another deouty
-Deputies are required to write their incident reports prior to getting off duty, Grantham left shift without writing his. We showed up at the station to file our complaint prior to the incident report being initiated. The incident reports are electronically stamped and cannot be fabricated as to date of initiation.
- we have witnesses as to what happened at the hospital and the police station. Who is the victim here?

I do believe that this is not a joking matter of any kind. My husband could have been killed by this little game due to the head injury. I do not care about giving anybody "ammo" because it is in black and white and most of this cannot be fabricated. Along with justice, I do care that the truth be exposed. I will not stand for this, and am shocked that the rest of you do. I am in a job of service to the state too, and I guess that is why this disturbs me so much..but we in medicine have the Hippocratic Oath as our guiding factor. i would lose my license to practise physical therapy if I deliberately hurt a patient and fabricated evidence....why is law enforcment so different?

I have been to this establishment on many occassions and never felt I was in a "shady" place. There's obviously a lot more to this story than is being reported/posted. However at the same time I find it interesting that not one person has come on here to complain that they should be closed.

I don't think that CJane is "sue-happy" since if she has retained council they would have told her to stop posting anything on a public forum. However I also feel that there may be some projection of anger from one party to another one.

Based on what you have posted the following is what I'm assuming happened.

Your husband got drunk in a bar.
He was loud and rude and asked to leave. When he didn't comply he was escorted out. He probably continued to make an arse of himself in front of the business and was removed. Employees in a bar routinely escort people off of the premises. Go watch in front of La Vela on any Friday or Saturday night and you'll see plenty of people walked to the front of the property. He then probably became violent and the employees defended themselves and called the police. The police probably arrived and sent him to the hospital. As with most drunk and disorderly conduct calls they probably thought he would sober up and not wish to remember the incident himself. I worked in a bar that occassionally had incidents such as this. Incident reports were filed, but they were generally very brief such as:

Arrived at bar and removed drunk and disorderly customer at managements request.

In some cases they issue a trespass warning.

The interesting part in all of this is that you continue to post. As anyone can tell you if you are involved in an investigation similar to this you should probably retain council and then follow that lawyers advice. I'm sure the first thing they would tell you is to keep your mouth shut unless speaking to an investigator.

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Wow, this thread is incredible. All I can say is good luck to Calamity Jane trying to fight the good ole boy system in Walton County, it has been around a long time.

what was the point of reviving this tired thread?

what was the point of reviving this tired thread?

Wow, you are right. I saw it in the recently commented section and never even looked at the dates. Then, after I commented, the recent comment had been deleted so it looks as though I revived it, sorry. I should been more aware of the dates but I am still on my first cup o joe.

Man! Tired is right!

I liked Cafe Rendez-vous. And, I love shady places anyway~~~~~