A prominent Tower District real estate agent is facing a misdemeanor sexual battery charge from an incident at a gay nightclub in early February.
Fresno County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against Tom DeBey, 49, earlier this month after a Fresno Police Department investigation. DeBey has not entered a plea and is scheduled to be arraigned in June.
The alleged incident occurred Feb. 9 at FAB, a gay nightclub on Olive Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Fresno’s Tower District. Jessica D. Thomas, a 31-year-old artist and performer who lives and works in the Tower District, told police DeBey grabbed her hair and yanked her back as he rubbed his groin on her.
“I just wanted to go hang out with my friends after work one day, and then I got assaulted by a gay guy — which is the craziest thing to say as a woman,” she said. “These gay guys think they have some type of entitled view of a woman’s body because they’re gay. It’s appalling behavior. It’s a bigger shame for me because we’re trying to fight that view that the gay community is just a bunch of drunken perverts. We’re trying to police this.”
One of FAB’s owners, Terry Story, said DeBey was escorted out of the club by security and is not allowed to return.
