The saga of Anne Marie Bompart — a self-styled “woke” crusader who’s harassed two iconic West Village lesbian bars — has turned into a courtroom spectacle that’s as jaw-dropping as it is frustrating for the victims involved.
On Wednesday, Bompart was due in Manhattan Supreme Court for the latest hearing in a $40 million defamation suit filed by Henrietta Hudson and Cubbyhole, two beloved LGBTQ bars she’s repeatedly targeted with threats and defamatory claims. The hearing didn’t start smoothly: Judge James d’Auguste waited 90 minutes for Bompart to appear. Her own lawyer said she had been ignoring his messages for weeks and asked to withdraw as her counsel.
But when the judge finally began the hearing without her, Bompart stormed into the courtroom with three court officers and her mother trailing behind. Incredibly, she made a beeline for Vic Smith, Cubbyhole’s manager and one of her main targets, and grabbed him on the shoulder — despite having a criminal order of protection against her.
“Do not touch me,” Smith shouted as the judge, the court officers, supporters, and Bompart’s own mother looked on. Bompart, unfazed, shot back, “Oh, but you can touch me?” — referring to a disputed incident from two years ago.
For most defendants, this would be an instant trip to a holding cell. Instead, Judge d’Auguste thanked Bompart for showing up and signaled he would order an outpatient psychiatric evaluation rather than jail. “It’s something that could land you in jail, and so the question is, why?” the judge asked. “Because it’s not rational.”
This despite at least 70 documented violations of a no-contact order, hundreds of emails to the judge’s clerks (so many they’re now flagged as spam), and a history of harassment that’s pushed the plaintiffs to their limits. As Bompart made hearts with her hands at photographers — and then flipped them off — the bars’ attorney, Tom Shanahan, voiced what many were thinking: “This is coddling of a felon. I think she is a felon.”
Bompart hasn’t been charged with or convicted of a felony, but her courtroom behavior was a case study in defiance. After calling Shanahan “evil” and claiming he conspired with the district attorney to steal her phone, she launched into a self-pitying monologue about being hated by her friends. “They can’t get enough of me. That’s why they’re all here. They love me,” she said, in full Norma Desmond mode. “Vic is upset that he never gets laid, and that’s what this whole thing is about.”
Judge d’Auguste tried to rein her in, telling her, “You see, this is the type of self-control you’re not exhibiting. If you wouldn’t have sent the emails, you literally wouldn’t be here today.”
For now, Bompart is walking free, and the victims of her harassment are left watching a judicial system bend over backward to accommodate someone who’s openly defied its orders — a spectacle that has left the bars’ supporters and legal team fuming.
