Chef Louie A. Bruni (not the former County Judge) was the object of the wrath of mayoral candidate Roque Vela Jr. in an altercation at the newly inaugurated Pla-Mor entertainment facility on the evening of December 1.
At the heart of the issue that evening was that Bruni, who is TABC certified decided that two allegedly inebriated patrons at the Pla-Mor bar did not need to be served any more liquor.
“He started yelling at me to get back to the kitchen and them came through the door jabbing his finger at my chest and pushing me. He pushed me enough to back me up to the wall,” Bruni said of Vela. “He kept pushing me to provoke me to hit him. He called me names and followed me outside and told me to cross the street to continue this.”
Bruni said he made an assault report with Laredo Police officers and and that the Pla-Mor IT tech had left the facility to go home before the police arrived.
According to Bruni, “When he came back, there was no video in the camera that had recorded what had happened between us. The police could see it had been deleted. The employee who recorded the exchange on his phone, my line cook, was threatened with his job. Roque bought everyone a beer to placate things when he came back.”
Bruni said he had been promised $5,000 to create a five-star menu, and was later told it would be $3,000. “I was never paid for the menu, and some employees have never been paid, and some who negotiated good salaries for positions of responsibility were paid minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) with a promise to fix things eventually. It’s not a good situation over there.”
He added that the woman trying to obstruct the cell phone recording of the exchange was the Pla-Mor marketing director.
(NOTE: Vela did not leave the Pla-Mor at 10:30 p.m. as earlier reported. It was the company’s IT tech who left.)
Well done and excellent journalistic reporting. I thank you for clarifying the situation. You have definitely changed my mind even though my conscience still keeps me from voting for his opponent. After living 72 years, 36 of them working in health care and post-secondary education teaching medical ethics and history, I’ve learned to intensely dislike child molesters, mysoginists, ignoramuses, bullies, liars and Trump supporters…sometimes not necessarily in that order. I will vote, but avoid the mayoral race.
This says a lot about alcohol related social issues what it does to people! This person is not in my mind ready to take mayoral responsibilities yet! This person is a person that needs ethics and manhood ideas taught to him! Sorry sir for me feeling this way about you but your beyond understanding!😳