It’s crazy what the power of stardom and fame can do to an individual. But it’s even more devastating what it can do to an entire business.
After one woman who claims that she was sexually assaulted by Jackson Mahomes, brother of Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, went public with her claims in February, her restaurant suffered so much business loss that the Overland Park, Kansas, eatery is now permanently closed.
Aspen Vaughn, the owner of Aspen’s Restaurant and Lounge went public with her accusations of Jackson Mahomes sexually assaulting her, along with a video being released to the public showing Jackson forcibly kissing Vaughn and gripping her throat as well.
According to the Kansas City Star, since the information regarding the sexual assault went public Aspen’s Restaurant and Grill’s sales had gone down by 75 percent by last month. Along with the decline in sales, she also claims that she has been the target of various forms of vandalism and that her restaurant has been blackballed directly as a result of her bringing up sexual battery allegations against the brother of the most famous person in Kansas City.
“It’s hard to own a company and go through everything that we’ve gone through,” Stephanie Lopez, an administrative employee of the restaurant, told the Kansas City Star. “We were so close to making it, and then this whole thing happened.”
Some of the events that Vaughn claims happened as a result of the sexual battery allegations were that someone cut her air conditioning connections, damaged natural gas lines as well as caused water damage by pulling the fire alarms.
While she is alleging these are all in connection to her situation with the trendy TikTok star, Jackson, via his lawyer, claims that he never did anything wrong to her in the first place.
“Jackson has done nothing wrong. Our investigation has revealed substantial evidence refuting the claims of Jackson’s accuser including the statements of several witnesses,” attorney Brandan Davies said in March.
Vaughn on the other hand feels like now it isn’t safe for her not only to run her restaurant, but that it isn’t safe for her in general anymore.
“I feel like definitely since it’s occurred, my safety is definitely at risk,” Vaughn told the Kansas City Star last month. “I’m feeling attacked by people I’ve never met. Why do victims not come forward? It’s because this is how they get treated.”
Jackson Mahomes is not only the brother of the signal-caller of the Kansas City Chiefs, who has happened to win two Super Bowls in the last five years, but Jackson is a social media sensation himself.
With both of those facts combined there’s a great chance there are people in the Kansas City area willing to do some mischievous things in his name.