A downtown Los Angeles bar known as a haven for the gay community is warning it could soon shutter as it faces a costly legal fight with a former employee.
“We’re a couple of slow weekends away from having to close our doors,” owners of Precinct DTLA wrote Friday on Instagram.
“Like many small businesses, we’ve taken hit after hit — from COVID shutdowns and ICE raids to citywide curfews and the ongoing decline of nightlife. But what we’re facing now is even more devastating.”
In May, Jessica Gonzales sued the bar, its owner, manager and an employee, alleging she faced discrimination and harassment as a cisgender, heterosexual woman and was subjected to an unsafe work environment.
Gonzales, who worked at the bar on Broadway for eight years, claimed that when she reported employees and patrons were having sex in the bar, its owner told her to “stop complaining.”
According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Gonzales was required to work the coat check for Precinct DTLA’s weekly “jockstrap / underwear party” without receiving pay. She said the bar’s manager eliminated the coat check fee, believing it would “incentivize more patrons to drop their pants.”
Gonzales claimed the environment grew so hostile she needed to bring stress balls to work. One day, her complaint said, another employee grabbed her stress ball and refused to give it back to her. In a struggle over the stress ball, Gonzales claims the employee broke two of her fingers.
According to her lawsuit, Gonzales was effectively fired after the incident, in part because Precinct DTLA’s owner and manager wanted to replace her with a gay male employee.
“These claims are completely false,” the bar’s representatives wrote on Instagram.
In the post, they added that the lawyer representing Gonzales “appears to have a clear anti-LGBTQ agenda.”
“There are multiple reports — including from individuals who previously worked with him — that he used anti-LGBTQ slurs in written emails while at his former firm,” they wrote on Instagram.
Gonzales is represented by John Barber, court records show. The Times reported in 2023 that Barber and his colleague Jeff Ranen regularly denigrated Black, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Asian and gay people in emails they exchanged while partners at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.
After Barber and Ranen left to start their own firm, Lewis Brisbois released scores of the lawyer’s emails, which showed the men regularly used anti-gay slurs, The Times reported.
In a joint statement at the time, Barber and Ranen said they were “ashamed” and “deeply sorry.” Barber didn’t immediately return a request for comment Saturday.
In the Instagram post, Precinct DTLA’s representatives said defending themselves from Gonzales’ allegations was “draining us emotionally and financially.”
“Come to the bar,” they wrote. “Buy a drink. Order some food. Tip the staff. Show up.”
