Concerns over public safety have erupted in Cambridge after allegations of criminally sexual activity by a prominent restauranteur’s brother contributed to the closing of another restaurant.
When My Favorite Things restaurant closed last month, proprietor Lea Ann Macrery alleged that her landlord Jack Foley, who owns the breakfast-lunch spot 158 Main in the same building, retaliated against her after she obtained video evidence of his brother, Greg Foley, sexually harassing her and her employees.
Greg, 61, was caught on video masturbating on the porch of his home, also owned by Jack, in view of the window of My Favorite Things. Greg was arrested and charged with felony lewd and lascivious conduct while Macrery and two of her employees, one of whom was a minor, obtained no stalking orders against him.
An employee left following the harassment and Macrery claimed she suffered from “extreme crippling anxiety of being next door to a sexual predator,” and said she was evicted after getting behind on her rent.
While Jack fired his brother after Macrery presented the video evidence and has been trying to evict him for over a year, he was dismissive of Macrery’s claims and said she was to blame for the failure of her restaurant.
After someone shared the News & Citizen’s initial reporting in a Facebook forum, several Cambridge residents alleged that Greg Foley had been making the community feel unsafe for years.
One woman claimed Foley exposed himself and masturbated in front of her teenage daughter on the Cambridge Elementary School playground on two separate incidents. She said she called the police after each incident.
Another woman, a local business owner in Jeffersonville, claimed to be a former employee at 158 Main and said she’d suffered numerous instances of sexual harassment involving Foley when she was a minor.
The women, though their identities have been verified, are not named as they shared their allegations in a closed forum and did not return requests for comment.
Around the same time Macrery alleged Foley harassed her and her staff, the News & Citizen police blotter reported he was “arrested for lewd and lascivious conduct after police alleged he was exposing himself and masturbating in front of a minor on School Street in Cambridge.”
Vermont State Police did not inform the Lamoille North school district or Cambridge Elementary School about the arrest, but a source with knowledge of the elementary school’s operations said Foley’s photograph was shared with teachers.
A trespass order has barred Foley from the elementary school grounds for over a decade. A Lamoille North School District official confirmed the order is still in effect.
The school district said it employs an array of techniques to encourage school safety, including fostering close and open relationships with students and a “see something, say something” policy, and the district adheres to state-level school safety guidelines.
When Foley was arrested last summer after the My Favorite Things incident, the arresting officer noted Foley had pleaded down a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child to prostitution.
That charge stemmed from an incident where Foley got into bed naked with a teenage girl, according to a source with knowledge of the matter and other corroborating documents.
Being found guilty of lewd and lascivious conduct could have forced Foley to live a certain distance from the school, but Greg still lives at his brother’s property across the street from the elementary school playground.
“He has been able to act very inappropriately time and time again and has not suffered appropriate consequences,” said Amy Heinen, the Jeffersonville resident who began the forum discussion, and who worked with Foley at 158 Main for nearly a decade. “It is sad to see he is still up to the same awful behavior, 20 years later.”
Accountability
With few options to ensure their safety, Heinen and others settled on a letter-writing campaign to Vermont State Police. Foley has spent some time in prison related to trespass orders from members of his family, a source with knowledge of the incident told the News & Citizen.
Becky Gonyea, executive director of the Clarina Howard Nichols Center, a Morristown-based domestic violence prevention organization, said that grappling with these issues can be complicated.
“I don’t know that there’s a perfect answer,” she said. “Folks are always welcome and encouraged to call our hotline. If they’re not feeling safe, if someone else in their community is not feeling safe, a neighbor or a co-worker, whoever that we can provide some safety planning or support or resources for.” (The hotline is 802-888-5256.)
Gonyea also said the organization is available to host public discussions around sexual violence and people can keep each other safe by looking out for one another.
“Fundamentally, the most important thing, out of all of this is to be watching out for yourselves, your neighbors, your friends, trusting your gut when something doesn’t feel right, contacting law enforcement, if needed, and just doing the best we can to watch out for and care for one another,” she said.
Click Here For The Original Source.
