Women Say Asbury Bartender Drugged Drinks, Raped. He's Suing.

ASBURY PARK – A former Asbury Park bartender has sued several women and men, saying they've wrongly accused him on social media and elsewhere of drugging drinks and raping "girls."

In the lawsuit filed in October, Brent Comyack of Hillsborough said he was employed as a bartender in Asbury Park when he was accused drugging people's drinks. He said he lost his job and hasn't been able to get work since then because the defendants have been sharing the accusations on social media.

Comyack accused them of posting messages on Facebook referring to him as "the rapey bartender." They even posted a photograph of him saying "women: if this man is your bartender in Asbury, don't trust his drinks," he said.

One of the women who is being sued for damages told Patch she merely was sharing what other people posted.

She and several of the defendants, however, have stood by their claims, and they've even retained a law firm and started up a GoFundMe page to help fund their defense.

"We spoke the truth, and Brent is trying to silence us," the GoFundMe page said. "Comyack’s case has already caused huge emotional as well as financial stresses for us. We are all young women in our early 20s and early 30s and risk bankrupting ourselves fighting this lawsuit."

Comyack was an employee at Modine in Asbury Park around the time the incident happened, according to NJ Advance Media.

Modine posted this on its Instagram account around the time of the alleged incident: "Our company was incredibly disturbed to learn about an incident between an employee and a local woman in Asbury Park this past weekend."

"While the event did not take place at our restaurant, we take this matter very seriously. Within hours of our team being notified, the person in question was terminated."

The restaurant also said it spoke to the woman and made an effort to support her and communicate with the community and answer any questions.

J. Remy Green, a lawyer representing the women in the case, said a January order granted the defendants demand that Comyack file a more complete complaint. Judge Thomas Miller cautioned Comyack that his complaint was not adaquete, Green said.

Miller, Green said, wrote that no mention of the truth or lack of truth in these statements was made, let alone whether the women who passed information along acted negligently or with reckless disregard.

The court also observed that any speech that implicates "matters of public interest and concern triggers the higher actual-malice standard because free speech on such matters (has) adequate breathing room in a democratic society."

The defendants are now seeking to dismiss the case entirely. Green said that at the heart of Comyack's claims "is a simple question: Are women allowed to repeat horrific stories they find credible, to protect other women?"

"All applicable law, including the United States Constitution’s First Amendment itself, provides that the answer is ‘yes.,’” Green said.

According to the lawsuit, the events began on June 29, 2019 when a woman allegedly contacted Comyack and asked to meet after he finished working. He accused her of being drunk when she allegedly wanted him to take her to a birthday party.

Comyack said he offered to take her home, but relented to the woman's wishes, the lawsuit says. Comyack noticed how drunk the woman was and said he offered and urged her to drink water, according to the lawsuit. She later met another friend who brought her home, he said.

The woman, the lawsuit said, later told people that Comyack had urged her to drink a lot of water because she believed he had put drugs in the drink. She allegedly informed two other defendants in the case, one of whom was allegedly a friend of a former girlfriend of Comyack, the lawsuit said.

Both then began posting messages on social media saying Comyack was a serial abuser who drugged and "raped girls," the lawsuit says.

One of the women communicated with the Asbury Park Police Department and accused Comyack of attempting to drug her and sexually assault her. When police requested she take a drug test to support her claims, the lawsuit says, she refused, the lawsuit said.

One defendant claimed a woman had a "police drug test" which was positive for methadone, the lawsuit said, and that it was slipped into a drink.

Comyack was eventually fired from his job, the lawsuit said, even though his employer didn't believe the allegations.