A New Jersey judge has tossed a lawsuit filed by a former Asbury Park bartender who alleged he was blacklisted after a group of women posted social media posts accusing him of sexual assault.

He accused a “whisper network” of women of ruining his employment opportunities and his entire life because of their posts on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media websites that warned women that Comyack had allegedly been drugging drinks to then commit sexual assault against women for years.

Comyack filed the lawsuit in October against four women who posted warnings about him on social media sites and two male bartenders who went to the United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) website to further spread the allegations. The USBG is a nonprofit professional association for bartenders and other hospitality representatives who pay annual membership dues.

Judge Thomas Miller said Comyack’s lawsuit against the six people should be “dismissed without prejudice,” which means Comyack could refile the lawsuit if he did so based on new legal arguments. He also has the option of appealing the judge’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit.

According to NJ.com, Judge Miller’s opinion focused on the legalities of social media comments that depicted Comyack as a “rapey” bartender who displayed predatory behavior towards women.

The four women were nicknamed the “whisper network” in legal filings due to their online networking that allowed them to collect allegations against Comyack even though some of the women posting had not met Comyack or any of his alleged victims.

Lawsuit Against Alleged Sexual Assault Victim Not Dismissed

Comyack filed a separate lawsuit against a woman who alleges Comyack drugged her drink last June. He says the female friend asked to meet him after he was done working and that she was extremely drunk when she arrived at his bar. Even so, he said the woman voluntarily accompanied him to a birthday party that was underway at a different drinking establishment.

He claimed he kept trying to get his female friend to drink water as a way to sober her up. However, the woman allegedly reported to friends that she thought the water had tasted acidic. She also told them she felt like she had been given a drug. At the same time, Comyack allegedly kept trying to convince her to go to a hotel with him, according to legal documents.

Even though she later reported the incident to police, she never pressed charges. She shared the results of a drug test with friends, and the test allegedly showed she had ingested methadone, a narcotic often used to wean addicts off opioids.

According to Alcohol.org, a side effect of methadone is it can make a person feel drunk more quickly, cause drowsiness, and inhibit motor skills.

Court papers say the woman’s friends posted online the allegations that Comyack drugged her, which prompted responses from several other women who alleged Comyack had committed rape and other sexual assaults.

Social media site Reddit published a post by someone who warned women not to drink anything made by Comyack. More than 100 commenters replied with allegations that Comyack had been committing rape and other sexual assaults for 10 years.

Comyack, who reportedly was raised by a military family in Hillsborough, N.J,  says he was an employee at a restaurant called Modine in Asbury Park and hasn’t been able to find work in his new home of Florida because of the allegations, which he fully denies.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.