Peter Thomas from “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” was found not guilty of second-degree assault in Baltimore Circuit Court on Wednesday, March 1.
According to The Baltimore Banner, it took jurors less than an hour to deliberate and come back with the verdict for the restaurant owner who’d been accused by Tammy Rivera‘s niece, Chanel Williams.
Williams accused Thomas of choking her inside his Baltimore restaurant, Bar One Baltimore.
Thomas celebrated his not guilty verdict in various videos uploaded on his Instagram page. “I just walked out of the courthouse, and the verdict came back 12 out of 12 jurors, not guilty,” Thomas said in his first video. “Keep on coming for me, but I tell them that I’m protected.”
In his second video, the entrepreneur reiterated, “I was found innocent, thank God. All 12 jurors came back with innocent. And now I gotta move on.”
Afterward, the former “Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta” star spoke out after learning about the verdict. Rivera posted two videos on her Instagram story, explaining her account of the incident that took place in March 2022 involving her niece and Thomas.
Noting that she does not play when it comes to her family, the 36-year-old shared that she refrained from talking about the situation “out of privacy” for her niece.
“My niece didn’t want me to help her, she didn’t want me involved. She didn’t want me to help her with the lawyer, the case or anything,” Rivera said.
The reality star then suggested that the only reason Thomas was found not guilty was because of the fact that he had a lawyer to defend him while her niece only had a state attorney.
“He put his hands on her, he choked her. She called me outside the restaurant crying hysterically. My niece is not loud, she’s not ghetto. She does not be in no mess; that’s not her world.”
Rivera continued to state that Thomas even attempted to get in contact with Williams the day after their altercation to apologize for his actions.
As her video came to a close, Rivera called Thomas “sad” for being so intoxicated that he couldn’t accurately remember what happened.
“Get some help, thank God that you had a little money to get you a good lawyer to get you off, but next time it might not go that way. It might go a whole ‘nother way,” she said.
Thomas’ innocence didn’t stop fans from defending Rivera and her niece.
“They way Peter used to hop in women face on ‘RHOA,’ I’m not shocked by this at all”
“And honestly even if she is loud and ghetto, he’s a grown man that should keep his hands to himself.”
Williams and Thomas headed to court on Tuesday, Feb. 28, following her accusation that he put “a hand around her neck” and squeezed for half a minute.
While Williams and her friend Cierra Dunlap labeled Thomas as the aggressor, both Thomas and a restaurant manager, Hannah Akinwunmi, accused Williams of attacking the restaurant owner.
In the end, the evidence Thomas and his lawyer provided in court was enough to convince the jurors to rule in a way that proved favorable to him.
