Social media firestorm over rape report singes Harrisburg's HMAC

Aug. 02--Facebook has always been Harrisburg Midtown Art Center's friend.

The hip destination for culture, arts, music, dining and drinking has ridden a social media wave to success among a diverse group of devoted clientele.

But in the wake of a woman's claim she was raped on July 13, social media bit back.

The resulting firestorm put HMAC and its reputation as a cool, counter-culture gathering spot squarely in the crosshairs.

It began with what Harrisburg police say was an error-filled account posted by the woman in the comments section of HMAC's Facebook page, which reaches nearly 17,000 followers.

It extended to at least two websites and then compounded many times over as the account spread with lightning speed in social media circles.

The police investigation, which resulted in a suspect's arrest late Monday, could not hope to keep up. The man has since been charged in a second rape. According to new charging documents filed by the Harrisburg police, Michael Ray Wright, 33, was involved in an almost identical incident May 25 outside a different bar.

The woman, reached by PennLive via Facebook message, said she was attempting to heal and seek justice, but otherwise declined comment.

"She said she was drugged and carried out of here and thrown out into the arms of a rapist," said John Traynor, HMAC's co-owner, recounting the spark for the social media storm.

"That allegation was posted on our Facebook webpage," he said. "It was up for maybe 20 minutes, 30 minutes."

That's all it took.

Soon, Traynor was reading about how HMAC was as a hotbed for roofies, date rape and sexual assault.

"Of course, it made us look like the worst place in town," he said. "It became a frenzy.

"This is Harrisburg's very own 'Pizza Gate.' You remember Pizza Gate?" he said, referring to the disproven account of predatory pedophilia aimed at top Democrats during the 2016 election.

"That's exactly what happened. All of a sudden this is a salacious, horrific thing. If I heard this, I would say, (screw) that. Who would go to a place like that? Those people are evil."

Some readers of the accusations had that very same reaction.

Bands booked for shows at HMAC suddenly cancelled, weighing on business.

Ever since, Traynor has been driving himself crazy, trying to track all the social media posts, producing a 45-page PowerPoint chronicling what he calls a slew of "negative slander" against HMAC and him, personally.

"They were putting up memes of me that I drug people," Traynor said. "That I am personally responsible for drugging people. That I am a rapist. I've had my bartenders threatened over this whole firestorm."

Meanwhile, checks of Harrisburg police records dating back years turned up no criminal charges related to women being drugged or sexually assaulted at HMAC.

Still, HMAC has instituted a new policy calling for bartenders and servers to take away unattended drinks. And Traynor has ordered lab strips that patrons can use by request to test their drinks for drugs.

In the July 13 rape case, Harrisburg police say suspect Michael Ray Wright, 33, met the woman outside HMAC after it had closed in the early-morning hours. They and a female friend of the woman talked, and later the friend dropped off the woman and the suspect at a residence on the 600 block of Oxford Street, police said.

It was there police say Wright beat and raped the woman.

In announcing the charges, Harrisburg Police Capt. Gabriel Olivera took the unusual step to deny the HMAC-related accusations -- namely that the woman had been drugged while inside the bar, then carried by HMAC bouncers out to her attacker.

"What was posted on social media was incorrect," Olivera told a reporter. "I'll just leave it at that."

It took two weeks for the police investigation to catch up with social media rumors. In that time, the damage has been done, Traynor said.

"There has never been a denial that something terrible happened to her," Traynor said. "But it didn't happen to her here. What happened was this young woman, for whatever reason, made these incredibly serious allegations about the conduct of our staff about what happened to her (here) -- and it was proven to be false."

What Traynor called "the false narrative" took on a life of its own.

"That started a whole thing of anyone who had any negative experience at HMAC started to come forward," he said. "Anything negative all conflated into this narrative that HMAC supports a culture of sexual assault. That is the harm social media does. It hurts. And, it's not fair."

Many of the accusations date to the opening of Stage on Herr, the music club side of HMAC that was the facility's only venue from 2009-14.

Traynor described Stage on Herr of those early years as a "hedonistic playground for a subculture that existed in Harrisburg." And he said his own conduct in that alcohol-fueled setting was anything but saintly. Yet, he said it was never criminal, nor abusive.

"Call me a lecherous old queen; I could care less," quipped Traynor, who is openly gay. "When you are talking about HMAC and what I have worked hard to build and all the people that support us and everything ... to let trolls and disgruntled people with an ax try to destroy that, of course I'm going to be angry."

Traynor said both he and HMAC have changed with the opening of "the Kitchen" restaurant and the second-floor ballroom in 2014, increasing the facility's size to 35,000 square-feet.

"HMAC went through a metamorphosis," he said. "It changed. And I have changed. I am not the person I was 10 years ago. I have four years' of sobriety. I'm proud of that."

Indeed, HMAC now hosts community fundraisers and various functions for the likes of local art associations, leukemia foundations, children with AIDS, Shalom House, women's shelters, the YWCA, the Salvation Army -- even church services on Sundays.

"We do all these fundraisers," said Traynor, noting HMAC often offers its venues at no or reduced cost to nonprofits. "We've helped raise over $500,000 over the years for local charities and events. Our vision for HMAC was always that it would become a community place and benefit everyone in the community -- and be different."

Now some of those community organizations are rallying to HMAC's side in wake of the social media backlash.

David Morrison, executive of Historic Harrisburg Association, said HMAC's unique mix of arts, culture, music, drinking and dining sets Harrisburg apart from other much larger cities.

"Its unique formula blending cultural programming with a restaurant and nightlife is extremely unusual in any city," he said.

And for those who haven't been around long enough to remember what midtown was like before HMAC, Morrison has this reminder:

"Midtown had very little happening. That building sat vacant for 30 years," he said of the HMAC space that once housed a Jewish community center and later the police athletic league.

"There were many, many false starts to get something off the ground. A lot of people looked at it. A lot of people had ideas. It required an awful lot of restoration and perseverance," Morrison said.

These days, Third Street is Harrisburg's cultural boulevard, and HMAC -- along with the likes of Midtown Scholar, the Millworks, the Broad Street Market and the Susquehanna Art Museum -- are regional attractions.

"I worry that this type of social media has the power to do a lot of damage to a lot of people, places, institutions and businesses everywhere," Morrison said. "But I am pretty sure that those who champion HMAC far outnumber those who are attacking it."

On a more personal level, HMAC provides a livelihood for the people who work there, the musicians who play there and the artists who hang their art there. For others who just love to hang out there on an almost daily basis, HMAC is a second home.

Sean Gebhart, who hosts Karaoke nights at bars all over Harrisburg, York and Lancaster, says there's something special about HMAC and its diverse, eclectic clientele who somehow all come together in the art-bedecked space.

"Outside this building people may not interact with one another given where they come from and their backgrounds and that sort of thing," he said. "But in this building they're usually all friends. It's a strange aura to the place. People just get along."

On most nights, you'll find Harrisburg School Board member Carrie Fowler at HMAC, either chatting up friends or more likely, working on her computer in the lobby. For Fowler, who lives just blocks away, it's a second home and an office.

"I truly work out of here," she said. "I'm here every day. I feel safe here at all times. It's a community center that used to be a bar."

However, some say the backlash has threatened HMAC's safe, welcoming "come-as-you-are" cocoon.

HMAC staff members, in particular, expressed worry because the social media attacks made targets out of them, too.

"They said some terrible things about the staff," bartender Bethany Wasielewski said of the unfounded online accusations. "I felt personally attacked. We all have families here. We're trying to make a living. So it's really hard for us to be put into this type of situation. This has always been a safe haven for many types of people. For this to be named not safe is really unfair."

Down the bar, HMAC regular Erika Eberly is determined the haters will not win and that HMAC's secret weapon will prevail.

"The one thing that always comes first here is love," said Eberly, a devoted HMAC patron since 2010.

"The community that exists here can rise above anything," she said. "Everyone here cares about each other. They care about each other's well-being. I can come here alone and feel safe because I know security is going to make sure I'm safe, the bartenders are going to make sure. That's why it's going to survive -- the love in the community that's here. That's what people need, love and community."

And those are two things Eberly said are in very short supply these days on social media.

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