- A heated divorce battle is bubbling in one of Los Angeles' trendiest restaurants.
- Chef Elizabeth Johnson accused chef-partner Will Aghajanian of domestic and animal abuse.
Amid a heated divorce battle, the chef-partner of a trendy Los Angeles restaurant alleged in a restraining order request that her ex-partner physically abused her, killed their kitten, and harmed a dozen more animals.
Elizabeth Johnson, who runs the restaurant Horses with chef and co-founder Will Aghajanian, detailed abuse she claims that she and several house pets suffered during her marriage with him in divorce records filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court and first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Aghajanian's attorney denied all of Johnson's allegations to Insider and said that the case was about money.
Johnson claimed in a November 2022 request for a temporary Domestic Violence Restraining order that Aghajanian killed a kitten in their household, as part of a sinister pattern of abuse against her and their pets.
Aghajanian has levied that he and his dogs were the victims of Johnson's abuse, in a dueling restraining order filing, filed after Johnson's.
Horses, which opened in 2021 to glowing reviews, is framed to have an egalitarian chef rotation and a thousand-person-long waiting list. It is frequented by celebrity fare including the likes of Jay-Z and Beyonce.
But just over a year after opening, Johnson claimed in court filings that she was in hiding, fearing for her life from Aghajanian, her husband, and culinary partner at Horses. The fate of their upcoming New York restaurant Froggy's is also unclear amid the divorce battle.
Horses did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.
In her request for the restraining order, Johnson said that one day she heard a loud noise and found the cat with a large laceration to its head, while Aghajanian said one of their three dogs had attacked it, per court documents.
Aghajanian did not allow her to take the cat to the veterinarian, she alleged.
"Several days later, I caught Will violently shaking the cat late at night, and he died the next day," Johnson said in the filing. "Will put the dead cat in the trash and insisted on keeping the corpse in the house."
Johnson claimed that during their time together, he abused "up to 14 animals," and that he emotionally and physically abused her.
In December 2022, a judge approved her restraining order, and in May it was reissued.
Aghajanian claimed that Johnson routinely threatened their dogs' lives and in multiple instances, "put a metal spatula on the hot oily griddle, then pushed it against my forearm, severely burning it," and leaving a scar, according to court filings.
He claimed that Johnson kicked him on several occasions, and he accused her of "threatening to kill my dog Poncho," or telling him that she made, "Pancho oil pills."
Johnson's attorney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.