GPD opened an investigation after an alleged assault at The Social at Midtown May 5.
According to an Instagram story posted May 6 by Carlos Zaragoza, 22, he and his partner, Christian Acevedo, 22, were in the same stall in the men’s bathroom the evening of May 5. Security assaulted them after forcefully removing them from the stall, he said.
GPD has made no arrests but is investigating the incident. Reports obtained by The Alligator were heavily redacted. It does not state the alleged victims’ names or any information given to responding officers. Graham Glover, GPD’s public information officer, declined to comment on the report.
Robert Zeller, owner of The Social, said the alleged victims were violent toward two managers.
Zeller said the altercation was an enforcement of his establishment’s rules, not an issue of homophobia. The policy of keeping one person to a stall has been standard for the last 27 years, he said.
“If there’s two people, it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female or what they are, they’re in a stall, they’re doing cocaine 99 times out of 100,” he said. “If not, they’re having sex.”
He said he was unsure what the alleged victims were doing in the bathroom.
The Social does not tolerate any violence toward employees or customers, he said, and allowing illicit activities on the property could lead to The Social losing its liquor license.
“If I got 600 people in there, I have to look out for the safety of all 600,” he said. “I can't let two people possibly endanger the other 598 because if they're willing to be violent towards a staff member, they’re definitely willing to be violent toward another customer.”
Acevedo said his injuries landed him in the trauma unit at UF Shands Hospital for nine hours. A picture posted to a crowdfunding page shows Zaragoza lying in a hospital bed with multiple monitors attached to his chest.
“It’s ridiculous that queer people can’t even check up on each other in peace without getting the s--t beaten out of them,” Acevedo wrote. “This is exactly why I, AS A QUEER PERSON, do not feel safe going into straight places.”
GPD’s redacted incident report lists UF public health graduate student Victoria Paniagua, 22, as a witness to the alleged assault.
Acevedo, Zaragoza and Paniagua all said a lawyer advised them to not speak about the ongoing investigation.
"We are confident that the evidence will show that an employee of the Social, acting in a security capacity, engaged in an unprovoked, unjustified and excessive use of force against both of my clients with the result that they both sustained significant injuries, and are currently undergoing medical treatment for those injuries,” Robert Soraci, Acevedo and Zaragoza’s lawyer, said.
Soraci was unable to give details on the alleged assault but said there was evidence nothing illicit or improper occurred in the stall his clients occupied together.
“The real tragedy is that both of my clients, Christian and Carlos, their intent on May 5, 2022, was to go to The Social and have a good time, and this turned into a nightmare for both of them.”
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
Contact Sandra McDonald at smcdonald@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @sn_mcdonald.
This article has been updated to reflect that Carlos Zaragoza is 22 and was not arrested for stealing a credit card in 2018. It was also updated to clarify Robert Soraci does not represent Victoria Paniagua. The Alligator previously reported otherwise.
Sandra McDonald is a third-year journalism major and the Student Government reporter for the University Desk. This is her first semester at the Alligator. When she's not reporting, she's probably reading fantasy novels and listening to Taylor Swift.
