In recent months, four former 4 Hands employees, including Barnett, have come forward to the Riverfront Times to share similar concerns about Salas. One of them, Alex Leonard, describes Salas as being inappropriate above and beyond the industry's notoriously loose norms. He also notes that Salas would regularly get drunk at 4 Hands promotional events he was attending socially, then go off on his own.
"There were a handful of times when we'd be trying to get him to go home, and people would call him a cab or an Uber, but he'd get in his car and drive somewhere else," Leonard says. "When he'd go off on his own, people weren't going off with him because we wanted to be safe ourselves and reflect well on the brand we represented."
What disturbs Leonard so much about the situation — in addition to the horrible allegations — is that he believes Salas' behavior was known around the brewery. Though Leonard stops short of saying that anyone at the brewery suspected Salas was assaulting women, he is adamant that it was widely known that Salas regularly engaged in behavior that was off-putting, inappropriate and reflected poorly on the brand.
"I've been talking with people who still work there and used to work there, and there is an air of shock and people were surprised [by the sexual assault allegations], but that's mind-boggling to me," Leonard says. "I can't speak to other people's impressions and the exact allegations in depth, but I can see how this is something he could have done."
One of those former colleagues, who asked the RFT to withhold her name, says she not only witnessed Salas' behavior, but was on the receiving end of it over the course of their seven-year work relationship. In both a sworn affidavit as part of Hely's lawsuit and interviews with the RFT, the woman describes a pattern of ongoing harassment, ranging from inappropriate comments to physical intimidation that included trying to trap her in the walk-in cooler, cornering her, aggressively verbalizing his desires for sexual encounters and pressuring her to sleep in his bed after a night of drinking. Though these incidents happened in isolation, her sworn affidavit notes two experiences in which her 4 Hands colleagues were present: one in which she told the sales manager, Nick Kanter, that Salas tried to take her home and another where Salas lifted his shirt to show his "wolfpack" tattoo and shook his belly at a woman at the bar. According to her affidavit, 4 Hands president Kevin Lemp was present at the latter incident, though he immediately excused himself from the situation.
The scene that the four former 4 Hands employees paint is one in which Salas' behavior was beyond an open secret at the brewery: It was well-known and tolerated. However, Lemp is adamant that he had no knowledge of Salas' behavior, and that, once the assault allegations became known, he took immediate action to terminate Salas. In response to the accusations, Lemp issued the following statement this summer:
"We were shocked and saddened this week to learn on social media of sexual assault allegations against a former employee of our company. As members of the St. Louis community, we want you to know the person referenced in those allegations is no longer with 4 Hands Brewing Company, effective June 23."
Lemp's statement continues:
"We have high standards for the behavior of employees. I was not aware of the allegations regarding this former employee until June 22. We take issues like this very seriously, and we reacted immediately upon becoming aware of these allegations. Within 15 hours of learning of these allegations, the person at issue no longer worked for my company. If I had been made aware of these allegations earlier, we would have acted at that time. The alleged abusive behavior of this former employee is completely at odds with our company's values. To those who have come forward, we hear you and applaud your strength and bravery."
None of the former employees or women accusing Salas allege that Lemp, or any other employees of 4 Hands, knew of the rape and sexual assault allegations against Salas. All, however, are emphatic that his lewd behavior was common knowledge, not only at 4 Hands but throughout the beer and bar community, and it was simply accepted as part of who he was.
Like the former coworker who claims she was harassed by Salas, Barnett says she had an uncomfortable encounter with Salas while the two were 4 Hands colleagues. In addition to observing his inappropriate actions on multiple occasions, Barnett says, she woke up to Salas in her bed following the 2018 World Naked Bike Ride. Though he told her that nothing happened, Barnett is not sure what to believe since she was intoxicated and unable to recall the events of the evening. Because of this, she says she has blamed herself for what did or did not happen and decided not to come forward because of what she describes as the "mental gymnastics" she had to do to get through the incident. It's stuck with her.
"The big part of it is, if he would have done that to me — someone who is part of the 4 Hands family — what would he have done with other women," Barnett says. "If he would've done that with me knowing that I would've said no, how much further would it have gone? That's something that really bothers me."
To Cleary Spiller and the other women, named and unnamed, who have come forward, it's a frightening but valid question.
"To have the same situation that happened to me happen to Nicole [Casper] ten years ago — and there was a four-year time frame from me to Nicole — makes you wonder what had been going on," Cleary Spiller says. "We've already compiled over ten women who have come forward saying he raped them, too, and that's only the women who have spoken up. You have to think about those who are too afraid to talk, because if we have ten now, who knows how many there are?"
