Restaurant owner sues Braddock mayor, claims defamation

Braddock Mayor Chardaé Jones admits she had the borough police check on the capacity at Portogallo Peppers N’At during the pandemic to ensure they weren’t exceeding the governor’s orders.

Also, she said, she forwarded to the county health department a Facebook ad Portogallo’s posted in which they said they would be offering karaoke and free alcohol the night before Thanksgiving in defiance of the governor’s orders closing bars and restaurants at 5 p.m. to try to mitigate covid-19.

Jones admits, too, that she wrote on Facebook that images Portogallo posted were offensive.

“When I get complaints from the community, I have to follow up on those,” Jones said Monday evening. “If people aren’t following the rules, that sets precedent for other people not to follow the rules.

“That leads to chaos.”

On Monday, Portogallo Peppers, owned by Robert Portogallo, filed a federal lawsuit against Jones and the borough of Braddock alleging defamation and civil rights violations for Jones’ actions.

The lawsuit notes that the restaurant posts political satire and parody on its Facebook page.

“Such videos and comments constitute an appropriate exercise of the owner’s right to freedom of speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Portogallo drew public attention in August when he posted a meme depicting Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine as Nazis. He removed the post and apologized for it. Earlier, he had posted another in which he dressed like Levine.

He claimed he did not know Levine is Jewish or transgender.

But in his lawsuit, Portogallo alleges that Jones’ comments about his posts were defamatory.

The lawsuit alleges that on April 20, Jones published derogatory comments about the restaurant on her official Facebook page, in which she wrote Braddock “does not condone this kind of behavior,” and “this is not what Braddock is about,” the lawsuit said.

In another post, on Aug. 13, Jones wrote that the Nazi post by the restaurant was “offensive,” and stated that “hate should not be the basis of a joke.”

The lawsuit also alleges that, on Nov. 23, Jones described Portogallo on her Facebook page as “transphobic, anti-Semitic and racist,” and that she claimed the restaurant “does not follow the rules.” She also wrote that the owners “do not reflect our community values.”

In addition to the defamation claim, the lawsuit alleges Jones had borough employees conduct undercover surveillance at the restaurant, which moved to its Braddock Avenue location in 2016, to find violations of state and county covid-19 polices and reported the restaurant to the county and state for violations.

“Peppers N’AT believes and therefore avers that these actions taken by the mayor and the Borough of Braddock were intended to harm or destroy the business of Peppers N’AT,” the lawsuit said.

It also alleged the defendants’ actions were racially motivated “as part of an effort to keep Caucasian owned businesses out of Braddock.”

In addition to the defamation count, the lawsuit alleges that Jones’ comments, as well as the use of public resources to harass the restaurant, are an attempt to destroy the business.

Jones’ denied she is out to hurt Portogallo.

“I don’t wish ill on him,” she said. “I just want him to follow the rules and be a good person.”

The lawsuit was filed by the same law firm that represents the Crack’d Egg, a Brentwood restaurant that filed a federal complaint against Allegheny County and the health department earlier this year.