Fort Worth celebrity chef must complete abuse intervention or he could go to jail
Celebrity chef Grady Spears, who was charged last year with assaulting his wife, must complete a program on deterring abuse or he could face a year in jail, according to an agreement reached Monday.
Spears, 51, of Fort Worth, must complete a 27-week Partner Abuse Intervention Program in Denton County, according to the memo of agreement reached by a prosecutor and Spears’ attorney.
If he completes the program, the assault charge would be dismissed, according to Tarrant County court documents. A hearing is scheduled for July 29, 2020, to review his progress in the program.
If he does not complete the program, Spears would have to go to court and could face a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, according to court documents.
The assault occurred on July 2, 2018, and Spears was charged with assault with bodily injury of a family member, a Class A misdemeanor, records show.
Spears was arrested in July 2018 after police responded to an assault call in the 2700 block of Meadowbrook Drive in Fort Worth.
Officers arrived at the couple’s home on the night of July 2, 2018. A 52-year-old woman later identified as Wendy Mann-Spears had bruises on her face and body, police said. She told officers Spears hit her multiple times.
But Mann-Spears later blamed medications following her husband’s arrest on a domestic assault complaint, according to her social media post a few days after the assault.
Mann-Spears, who was listed as the victim in a preliminary police report, said that her husband “does not condone violence. He’s a people person. He’s a people pleaser,” according to a Facebook post.
“He’s been on medication but been so busy lately he’s not been taking it the way he should have been,” Mann-Spears wrote on her Facebook page. “He also is suffering debilitating back pain. Although we have sought and are in the care of professionals things are what they are.”
In September 2018, she obtained a temporary protective order against Spears after he told her “there will be a funeral,” implying he was going to kill her, during an argument, according to an affidavit obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A day after their wedding anniversary in September 2018, Mann-Spears filed for divorce.
The couple divorced in 2018.
Spears co-founded Horseshoe Hill Cafe in the Stockyards along with other partners. He was the original chef at Reata, owned by the Micallef family, with locations in downtown Fort Worth and Alpine. He left in 2000 and has owned or managed a string of other restaurants in Fort Worth and across Texas. He also has written several cookbooks.
A few days after his arrest in July 2018, Food Hall at Crockett Row in the West 7th shopping area dropped its plans for a Spears restaurant and cut ties with him, according to a spokesman.
This report contains information from Star-Telegram archives.
