Coffee house owner faces battery charge in dousing

www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/March/18/local/stories/06local.htm

Santa Cruz

Police say the owner of LuLu Carpenter’s coffee house faces a battery charge Friday for flinging coffee at an activist taking part in a round-the-clock peace and homelessness vigil.
Manthri Srinath, 38, admitted throwing the coffee, which spattered a hand-drawn “Boycott LuLu’s” sign, and wet the pants of an activist named Banyon.
The protesters claimed LuLu’s employees treated them rudely, agreeing over the phone to let them pay for $70 worth of food by check, then rebuffing them in person. LuLu’s staffers say the phone call never took place and that the group held up the line in the shop, ordering food without the means to pay.
Whether or not there was a phone call “doesn’t negate the fact the guy went over when he shouldn’t have and threw the coffee on (the protester)” said police Lt. Joe Haebe. “He should have left well enough alone.”
Srinath couldn’t be reached to comment.