Mamma Lucia Co-Owner Accused of Groping Restaurant Patron

The restaurateur is charged with a sex offense, indecent exposure and second-degree assault

By Andrew Metcalf

District Court in Rockville State of Maryland

The co-owner of Mamma Lucia restaurants is facing multiple charges after he allegedly followed a woman from the restaurant’s Rockville location and groped her in a parking lot.

The woman told police restaurateur Dimitrios Fragoyannis, 49, was staring at her in the Shady Grove Road restaurant while she ate dinner with friends around 9 p.m. on June 12, according to charging documents filed at Montgomery County District Court. When she left the restaurant she said she saw him staring at her through the window.

As she drove away, she noticed a large black SUV following her. The driver, later identified as Fragoyannis, was honking his horn and the woman told police she believed something was wrong with her car, so she pulled into a nearby parking lot.

That’s when she says Fragoyannis got out of his vehicle and walked to hers. She told police she opened her door to see what he wanted and then Fragoyannis put his hands inside of her shirt from the top and grabbed her breast.

The woman then yelled at him to stop and she asked, ‘what are you doing?’ to which Fragoyannis replied, ‘This was the only way to get you alone and express my feelings to you,’ according to the court documents.

The woman told police the restaurateur then grabbed her breasts again, unzipped his pants and exposed himself. The woman told police that Fragoyannis said, ‘I want to be with you and if you take care of me, I will take care of you,’ and when the woman said no, the restaurateur allegedly said, ‘you are missing out.’”

Fragoyannis has been charged with a fourth-degree sexual offense, second-degree assault and indecent exposure.

The charges were first reported by ABC7 News on Sunday.

A representative for Mamma Lucia declined to comment on the charges Monday. The representative did not know if Fragoyannis is still working in the restaurants while facing the allegations.

Fragoyannis’ business partner, Bruno Fabi, told ABC7 that the allegations are “completely out of character” and he described Fragoyannis as a loyal husband, loving father and pillar of the community.

In 2008, Fragoyannis pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree sex offense in a different case. In that one, an 18-year-old waitress accused him of grabbing her buttocks after she brought him an espresso to his office at the restaurant on Shady Grove Road, according to the Montgomery Gazette. Fragoyannis was sentenced to 18 months of probation and a $1,000 fine in that case, according to the paper.

Mamma Lucia has two locations in Rockville—on Shady Grove Road and on Rockville Pike—as well as locations in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Olney and College Park.