Women testify SLO County barbershop owner raped them as teens. ‘I kind of just froze up’
Editor’s note: This story mentions sexual assault.
Three more women testified Tuesday and Wednesday that they were sexually assaulted by local barbershop owner Nathan Abate, including two that said they were raped as teens while Abate was in his 20s.
Abate is the owner of Cardinal Barbershop in Atascadero.
According to her testimony, Nate Abate allegedly isolated Lauren Doe at a party in 2009 and raped the teenager while she was falling in and out of sleep.
Her alleged assault applies to two of the four charges Abate is on trial for — rape by force and rape by intoxication. The women who were alleged victims in his other two charges, oral copulation of a minor and rape by force, already testified.
Other alleged victims of Abate’s, identified as Carina Doe and Jennifer Doe, also testified Wednesday.
Carina said she was 13 when she was raped by Abate in 2009. Jennifer said she fell asleep on a couch after a night of partying and woke up at least three times to Abate assaulting her in 2012.
Carina’s case was prosecuted in 2012 and ended with Abate pleading no contest to misdemeanor false imprisonment in 2013. According to earlier statements from the prosecution, Jennifer did not want to press charges.
Defendant raped teen at party, witness testifies
On Tuesday, Lauren testified that she and Tiffany Doe, another one of Abate’s alleged victims, snuck out of Lauren’s house to go to a party in Santa Margarita. It was the same party where Tiffany, during her testimony Oct. 4, said that Lauren told her she had lost her virginity.
Lauren testified she believed she was 14 or 15 at the time, but both Tiffany and Lauren’s mother, Elena, said on the stand they thought Lauren was 13 at the time.
During her testimony, Lauren said she and Tiffany were best friends, and one night while the two were having a sleepover at Lauren’s house, Tiffany arranged for them to get picked up and go to a party. Lauren did not know the boys who picked them up, she said, but added that they were older than she and Tiffany were.
She said she drank alcohol at the house and began to feel sick. When she asked the people at the party for water, she said Abate returned and gave her a cup full of alcohol. When Lauren took a large sip unaware it was alcohol, everyone laughed because they “thought it was funny,” she said.
She said Abate eventually took her hand and led her into a bedroom. Lauren said she believes she was drunk and stumbling at the time. She remembered there was multiple people in the room watching porn and wasn’t positive if Tiffany was in the room or not.
Lauren fell asleep on the bed then woke up with the lights off and someone on top of her, she said. When she asked, “What are you doing?” Abate shushed her and said, “It’s OK,” she said during her testimony.
Lauren said her pants were pulled down and she felt pain and pressure in her vagina. She said her shirt was also pulled up and that Abate was kissing her neck and chest. She said she was sure it was Abate because she could see his face lit up by the television screen.
“I was scared,” she said during her testimony. “I just didn’t know what to do.”
Lauren said she must have fallen asleep again, but by the next time she woke up, she was alone in the room without her clothes and with the lights off. She said she got up, got dressed and saw that her mom had been calling and texting her.
Lauren said she and Tiffany either walked or were taken to town in Santa Margarita and Lauren’s parents picked them up. She said she told Tiffany about what happened soon after and she told her mom about a week later.
Lauren’s mother, Elena, confirmed Wednesday that she picked Lauren and Tiffany up from the party.
During her testimony, she said Lauren’s demeanor changed from being happy to “crying quite frequently.”
Elena said about two weeks after that party, Lauren told her she had been sexually assaulted. Elena said she encouraged her daughter to report it to police.
Elena said she called law enforcement about the assault in the same year it happened, but the only information she had was Abate’s first name and it was at a party in Santa Margarita.
During her testimony Tuesday, Lauren said she saw Carina post on Facebook in 2022 about the allegations against Abate, which brought up memories of her assault.
She said she reached out to Carina, who had a similar story to hers, and that Carina connected her with police.
Lauren said she sent one brief message to Ashley Doe, who was the first woman to accuse Abate on social media sharing her story. Lauren said Ashley responded by showing support.
Teen who was raped by Abate stopped cooperating after call from defendant, she testifies
Since Ashley’s post, at least 30 women have accused Abate and Julian Contreras — Abate’s close friend and the former owner of Kin Coffee in San Luis Obispo — of sexual assault or harassment together or separately.
Contreras has since fled the country. Attorneys said in court Tuesday that he entered Mexico on Dec. 15, 2022. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office confirmed there is a felony warrant out for Contreras’ arrest.
During her testimony Wednesday, Carina testified about her experiences with both Abate and Contreras.
She said Contreras formed a friendship with her when she was 13 when mutual friends took her to his mom’s Santa Margarita house for a party.
She said she knew Contreras “was quite a bit older” than her, but that the two formed a friendship where they would drink alcohol together and sometimes have sex. Contreras was in his 20s at the time.
Carina said she met Abate on two occasions, but wasn’t sure which occurred first.
Once was at Abate’s parents’ house where the two kissed in the bathroom and the other was when she was taken to Contreras’ mom’s house for a kickback.
At some point during this party, she and Contreras began kissing on the couch and starting to engage in sex, she said. That’s when Abate came over and began kissing her forehead, she said. Carina said she made it known she did not want Abate kissing her and he left.
Sometime after that, Abate, Contreras and Carina all were in Contreras’ bedroom. The lights were turned off, Carina said, and her and Abate started kissing each other, which she consented to.
But then, she said through tears, Abate began to pull down her pants.
Carina said Abate raped her orally despite her saying no.
“I kind of tried to push him off slightly, but I kind of just froze up,” Carina said.
She said Abate didn’t stop. He then raped her with his fingers, which Carina also did not want to happen, she testified. She said Contreras was in the room during the entire incident.
Afterward, she was driven home.
Carina said she told her stepsister and her stepsister’s boyfriend at the time what happened, and the two told her what happened wasn’t OK and encouraged her to tell someone. But Carina didn’t want to.
But the next day, Carina said, she was pulled out of her eighth grade class and questioned by a Paso Robles police officer after her sister reported the assault.
She said she withheld a lot of information from police because she didn’t want to get Contreras or Abate in trouble and Contreras told Carina to delete her texts, so she did.
Abate was charged with two felonies in relation to the assault — penetration of a foreign object with a minor under 16 and sex with a minor under 16.
About two years later as the case was in the court process, Carina said she received a phone call from Contreras asking her why she was speaking to law enforcement.
Carina said Contreras sounded drunk and that Abate was also on the phone call. Carina said she told them that she was not the person who reported the assault to police.
After that phone call, Carina said she told the District Attorney’s Office she no longer wanted to testify or cooperate with the investigation. She said she didn’t want to deal backlash from mutual friends of Contreras and Abate or go through the court process.
Neither Abate nor Contreras threatened or persuaded her to not testify, she said.
Abate ultimately pleaded no contest to misdemeanor false imprisonment and the other charges were dismissed.
Carina also said the night of her assault, Contreras and Abate showed her a video of the two getting ready to have sex with Tiffany.
Carina knew Lauren and Tiffany through mutual friends, though they mostly hung out in group settings, she said.
She said she recognized Tiffany in the video, but according to a report read by the defense, she told investigators in 2009 the girl in the video had brown hair. During her own testimony, Tiffany said she had blonde hair with pink and blue streaks at the time of her assault.
Carina said when she saw Ashley’s post in 2022, she reached out to tell Ashley she believed her because something similar had happened to her. She said the conversations she and Ashley had were limited and her testimony was not influenced by Ashley or other witnesses in any way.
Woman says she woke up 3 times to defendant assaulting her
During her testimony Wednesday, Jennifer Doe said she met Contreras in 2012 through her sister.
She said her sister had been hanging out with Contreras, and one night he invited the two of them to go out in downtown San Luis Obispo with him and Abate. She was 22 at the time and Abate was 24 or 25.
It was the first time Jennifer met Abate, she said.
The four of them carpooled to the bars from Templeton and did cocaine in the car, she said. Jennifer testified she had less than three drinks while out at the bars.
The four eventually decided to go to Contreras’ house to continue partying, she said.
At the house, they continued to drink alcohol and do cocaine until the sunrise, Jennifer said in her testimony. That’s when Contreras and her sister went upstairs, she said. She and Abate were downstairs in the living room.
Jennifer said she felt stuck at the house because her sister was with Contreras, and she didn’t have a ride home. She said she laid down on the couch to try to sleep.
She woke up to Abate touching her inside her pants three separate times, she said. She said she resisted and pushed him off, but he kept coming back. During her testimony, she didn’t remember what exactly she told Abate, but said she made it clear she wanted him to stop.
He only stopped when she pushed him off and went upstairs to get her sister, she said.
When her sister saw she was distraught, the two left the house and walked to a bus stop. Jennifer never saw Abate again, she said.
Jennifer said she was connected with law enforcement in 2022 through her sister, who reported an assault by Contreras. Jennifer said she heard about the social media posts, but didn’t see them.
She testified she didn’t know any of the other victims testifying in the case.
The defense and prosecution are scheduled to argue what expert witness testimony to allow in the trial Friday without the jury present.
Witness testimony is scheduled to resume Monday with the jury in attendance.
If you or someone you know are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673. The hotline offers a range of free services including confidential support from a trained staff member, help finding a local health facility, legal and medical advice and referrals for long-term support. Survivor support and resources are also available through Lumina Alliance at luminaalliance.org or their Crisis and Information Line at 805-545-8888.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 5:12 PM.
