The couple, within the midst of a divorce, have traded allegations in courtroom filings in Los Angeles County Superior Court since closing fall, however experiences began to spill out onto social media this week. The Los Angeles Times printed what seems to be the first story about the allegations on Tuesday.
In her petition for a home violence restraining order, which was once licensed, Johnson painted a grim image of her husband and trade spouse. In her filings, she alleged that she has been “unable to go anywhere without his permission.” She says she came upon that Aghajanian had visited prostitutes. She alleged he led to her bodily and emotional hurt.
Johnson, 32, additionally claimed Aghajanian, 31, had abused and/or killed as much as 14 animals, consistent with courtroom paperwork. The couple had 3 canines — Pancho, Javi and Spud — when Johnson asked a restraining order on Nov. 1.
“In the past, Will and I have had cats that mysteriously ended up dying, including one in 2017 who I took to a shelter when she became seriously wounded overnight — the shelter told me she had been seriously abused, but Will denied it was him. I believed him,” Johnson wrote in her submitting.
Johnson alleged that closing 12 months, after the couple was once given some other kitten, Aghajanian “started calling him ‘Coyote Bait’/ said ‘we were going to feed him to the coyotes,’” consistent with courtroom papers.
“One day I was in the shower when I heard a very loud yelp and came out to find the kitten with huge lacerations and an abscess on its head,” Johnson famous within the courtroom submitting. “Will claimed the dog attacked him, and I believed Will, but Will forbade me from taking him to the vet. I was suspicious so I asked Will to stay away from him. But, several days later, I caught Will violently shaking the cat late at at [sic] night, and he died the next day. Will put the dead cat in the trash and insisted on keeping the corpse in the house.”
“I was the victim of psychological and mental abuse, so I believed Will when he denied killing these animals — he would insist I was crazy for questioning him and tell me to keep quiet. I now realize Will was torturing and killing these animals,” Johnson wrote within the courtroom filings.
Aghajanian was once now not to be had for remark, however his lawyer mentioned Johnson’s allegations are false. Elyse Margolin mentioned her shopper is an animal lover, now not an abuser. Margolin mentioned Johnson’s allegations are phase of an try to take over Horses, a high-profile vacation spot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, in addition to the couple’s forthcoming New York restaurant, Froggy’s, within the West Village. The Los Angeles Times reported that plans for Froggy’s are on pause all the way through the divorce court cases.
In his personal request for a restraining order, Aghajanian painted a a long way other image of his dating with Johnson. He claimed he was once the sufferer of Johnson’s longtime bodily and psychological abuse, accusing his spouse of again and again kicking, hitting and shoving him, and on two events, burning his hands with sizzling kitchen utensils. He alleged that she threatened to kill him and threatened to kill herself as a way of controlling him. His submitting incorporated declarations from his mom in addition to a chum and co-worker who claimed to witness Johnson hitting him.
Aghajanian denied Johnson’s allegations of animal abuse and alleged she was once the one that threatened and mistreated their pets. “She falsely accuses me of things she has done or that she has threatened to do to me or my pets,” he wrote in courtroom filings. He alleged that she introduced a kitten into their house, the place there have been 3 canines who didn’t get at the side of cats, “resulting in many squabbles between the pets including bloody physical injuries.”
The incident during which Johnson accused Aghajanian of shaking a cat is incorrect, he claimed. In his model, she discovered the kitten useless within the center of the evening, and woke him. “I then took the kitten from her and gently shook it to see if it were still alive,” he wrote. “I did not do this out of anger or hate as Liz portrays.”
He shared with the courtroom textual content messages during which Johnson mentioned she would kill Pancho, their canine. In one, she mentioned Aghajanian might be consuming “Pancho oil pills.” In a number of messages, she claimed to have killed the animal.
Aghajanian mentioned Johnson was once the usage of the restraining order and allegations to show their eating place companions and group of workers, in addition to his pals, towards him. Johnson alleged that his spouse, after submitting for the restraining order, referred to as the eating place’s group of workers for a gathering during which she referred to as him a “sex addict” and an “animal abuser.” He additionally accused Johnson of hacking into his electronic mail accounts and iCloud account, in addition to the e-mail accounts of more than a few unnamed trade companions, to hunt destructive information.
He mentioned he waited to reply to her preliminary allegations as a result of he was once hoping to reconcile, however claims that he by no means heard again from her. He therefore filed for divorce in January, after which made his personal request for a restraining order, which the courtroom denied. Margolin, his lawyer, didn’t know why it was once denied, and courtroom information don’t seem to be transparent on that.
He additionally denied her allegations that he managed her, pronouncing she was once the one that controlled their monetary property and maximum of the “operational areas of our daily marriage, and business.”
Neither Johnson nor her lawyer answered to makes an attempt to succeed in them.
In a statement on Instagram, the Horses staff wrote, “Will Aghajanian has been on a leave of absence from Horses as of November 2022, and since then he has not been involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. Under the guidance of Chef Liz, our incredible front and back of house teams are working to continuously make Horses what she had always intended it to be — a place of joy and celebration.” The remark concluded via pronouncing Horses would don’t have any additional remark.
Johnson and Aghajanian met greater than a decade in the past whilst they have been staging at Noma, chef René Redzepi’s celebrated New Nordic eating place that may shut subsequent 12 months. According to a declaration from Amanda Weathersby, Aghajanian’s mom, the couple was once married over the telephone in 2021 whilst they have been residing with Aghajanian’s oldsters. The couple purchased a area in Los Angeles closing 12 months.
Horses opened in September 2021, with a kitchen staffed now not via a unmarried chef, however via 4 of them, now not together with one dedicated to pastry. It was once an instantaneous hit with diners and critics. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Immediately it feels very much of Los Angeles while also asserting its own creativity; that’s a combination, when pulled off successfully, this city values.” The New York Times noted that the trouble of securing a reservation “can make Horses feel faraway and inaccessible, which is a shame, because once you do get in and sit down, ideally in front of the roast chicken, it can be pure deliciousness and warmth.”
The eating place even gave the impression to live on an issue closing 12 months when Eater reported that Ken Friedman, the disgraced owner in the back of the Spotted Pig and different once-fashionable eating places in New York, had helped Horses protected its preliminary hire. His help got here the similar 12 months Friedman agreed to a agreement with 11 former workers who accused him of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation. There was once some dispute between Friedman and Horses’s householders and traders over whether or not he was once a silent spouse, sharing within the earnings from the L.A. eating place.
This isn’t the primary time controversy has enveloped Johnson and Aghajanian. In 2020, the couple was once suddenly ousted from the Catbird Seat, an acclaimed eating place in Nashville, now not lengthy after Aghajanian and Johnson have been named semifinalists within the Rising Star Chef of the Year class for the James Beard Awards.