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Police are investigating allegations that the younger brother of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes assaulted a waiter and the owner of an Overland Park restaurant last weekend.
In separate incidents, Jackson Mahomes, 22, allegedly shoved the 19-year-old male waiter more than once and later forcibly kissed the 40-year-old female owner of Aspens Restaurant and Lounge, 6995 W. 151st St.
Police have been evaluating the establishment’s surveillance video recordings from last Saturday night as part of their investigation, restaurant owner Aspen Vaughn told The Star.
Authorities would not release a report of the incident, but provided the following statement in response to a request for information about the status of the investigation:
“The Police Department is aware of an incident that occurred on Feb. 25, 2023, at a business near 151st and Metcalf. The department is still investigating. Releasing any additional information would be inappropriate at this time. Anyone with information should contact the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.”
An attorney for Jackson Mahomes provided the following statement:
“Jackson has done nothing wrong. Our investigation has revealed substantial evidence refuting the claims of Jackson’s accuser including the statements of several witnesses. We have reached out to law enforcement to provide the fruit of our investigation so that they may have a complete picture of the matter.”
In an interview and a series of followup texts with The Star, Aspen Vaughn recounted the events of last Saturday, which the waiter also backed up. She also provided a video purportedly showing Jackson Mahomes grabbing her by the throat and kissing her at least twice in her office shortly after 10 p.m.
His advances were unwelcome and shocking, she said, and she believes he was intoxicated.
“He forcibly kissed me out of nowhere,” Vaughn said, “and I’m telling him, pushing him off saying ‘what are you doing?’ and then he proceeded to do it two more times where the last time I was pushing him off and I can see on the cameras that somebody was outside the office door and I was yelling for them to come help because he’s big and massive.”
At 6 foot 6, Mahomes is more than a foot taller than Vaughn, who is 5 foot 4.
Mahomes is a frequent presence on social media as a so-called influencer through his Tik Tok and Instagram accounts. He is often seen on the field before Kansas City Chiefs games and was on the stage alongside his brother at Union Station for the Super Bowl victory celebration last month.
Vaughn said Jackson Mahomes has also been a frequent guest at her restaurant due to his friendship with her step-daughter, who also works at Aspens. He had been in to see the step-daughter earlier that Saturday, she said, and was pleasant.
In December, Vaughn posted on Facebook a photo of her and Jackson Mahomes sitting side by side and in the comments section referred to him as “a good kid” and a good friend of her daughter.
But he has been disruptive during some of the more than 10 times he visited Aspens, she said, and treated the staff poorly.
“I would say one out of four times he comes in, it’s not a good experience,” she said.
Jackson Mahomes has come in for much criticism in recent years for his sometimes bad behavior online and in public, such as when he poured water on Baltimore fans when the Chiefs lost to the Ravens in 2021.
Last Saturday night he arrived with five friends around 9:30, according to Vaughn and the waiter, who asked that his name not be publicized. The place was busy. About 80 people were eating dinner or at the bar.
Mahomes and his entourage went into the basement office, and denied the waiter entry when he tried to go inside to retrieve his water bottle, the waiter said.
“I was going into our office downstairs where the employees are in the employee area, and he’s downstairs for I don’t know what reason,” the waiter said, “and I’m trying to get to the office, and he’s like, pushing me out. …And he’s like, No, get out, get out.”
The group then went into the VIP room upstairs. When Vaughn smelled the odor of marijuana drifting from that room, “I put my head in there and said, ‘hey, I can smell this, we have a party of 40 right out here and this can’t occur in the restaurant.’”
Shortly after 10, Vaughn said Mahomes asked to speak with her privately about the shoving incident, and that is when he allegedly grabbed her neck in that basement office with enough force that it left a faint bruise that is evident in a photograph she provided The Star.
“I was in shock,” she said. “It’s disgusting,” she said she told Mahomes. “Like you’re a child and he was trying to say ‘we should be a power couple, and I’m like ‘clearly you’re out of your mind right now.’”
Mahomes and his group left around 10:45, the waiter believes, when Vaughn’s boyfriend told them to go and not come back. Police arrived shortly after that in response to a phone call from the waiter’s father, who reported the shoving incident.
Vaughn turned over her surveillance equipment to the police and they installed a temporary system for her in its place, she said. She provided a written statement and the police assigned a case number, although no documents are on public file yet.
The waiter has not filed charges and is not sure whether he will, he said. Vaughn said the police told her they planned to pursue her alleged sexual assault regardless.
“Even without you wanting to press charges, we’re going to proceed anyways,” she said the investigating officers told her. “So it’s in your best interest to cooperate. So we’re like, OK, of course we are.”
She decided to publicize the case when she began to wonder whether the police would follow through, given Mahomes’ high profile.
“I told my lawyer all of this,” she said, ”and he said ‘why don’t you just share your story before someone else does?’”
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