Columbus, Ohio – Around a dozen protesters gathered outside TownHall’s Short North Arts District location Saturday evening after police arrested a man with ties to the restaurant.

Authorities arrested former Ohio State offensive lineman Michael McCullough, 25, last Friday for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. He faces one felony count of strangulation.

“I am her very close friend and also hairstylist, and I have seen the injuries on her myself and they are atrocious. I would like to think if anybody has women out there that they love and care about, that they’ll stick up for this woman and come together as Columbus,” said protester Megan Riley.

A flier promoting the protest had circulated on social media before the demonstration.

The arrest sparked widespread discussion online about Ethos Hospitality Group, the company that owns TownHall and several other high-profile restaurants in Columbus and Cleveland.

Protesters said they organized the demonstration to demand accountability after what they described as a pattern of violent criminal charges involving TownHall’s leadership. TownHall’s owner, Bobby George, also faces multiple charges in Cleveland, including attempted murder and rape.

Protesters added that their goal was to raise awareness and discourage people from supporting the restaurant group.

“I hope that it just spreads awareness about how serious DV is and how common it is,” Riley said.

Ethos Hospitality Group issued the following statement to NBC4:

As many of you have seen, there have been numerous posts – specifically from one account owned by an Individual Criminally Charged by the Columbus Police Department with telephone harassment and menacing while claiming he was just organizing a protest at TownHall Columbus.

While we support everyone’s right to publicly protest, a fundamental line has been crossed – moving beyond just protest and into outright harassment and criminal conduct. To be clear, contrary to outright false news and social media reports, TownHall does not and has never supported any kind of domestic violence. Further, contrary to outright false news and social media reports, TownHall has provided support to the victim of this horrible situation and will continue to provide that support for the foreseeable future.

It was Townhall’s hope to take that action in silence and without media attention, unlike the individual charged who has simply used the victim’s terrible circumstance as a personal marketing platform. Unfortunately, this individual and his supporter’s false claims have given us no option but to set the facts straight.

The Individual who has been criminally charged has been harassing Mr. George along with his employees for months with threats of violence. Recently, he crossed the line criminally by posting personal information about Mr. George and his employees and encouraged his followers to harass Mr. George and his employees.

Throughout the week, this individual’s conduct escalated. He repeatedly went to TownHall and Mr. George’s residence and threatened violence. On Wednesday night, someone matching this individual’s description came to Mr. George’s residence and threw a brick through his window with a note on it, “YOU WILL DIE SOON”. Given this escalation, Mr. George had no choice but to involve law enforcement.

In what is the ultimate display of hypocrisy, this individual claims to be doing all of this to defend abused women but spent the last week relentlessly verbally abusing and denigrating the women that work at TownHall and Mandrake. This individual has been publicly shaming these women in person and on social media – misogynistically and expletively commenting on them and their hygiene and calling them names.

This individual went to the extent to take pictures of several of these women, tagging them on public social media with their names so the entire community could further denigrate them, leaving them shattered and in tears. These women had nothing to do with this situation and certainly do not deserve any kind of abuse.

This individual’s actions showed his true intentions are not in justice for the victim but in taking advantage of a victim’s terrible situation and Mr. George’s name to get his 15 minutes of fame.

Thankfully, the Columbus PD intervened before anyone was hurt and put a stop to this harassing conduct and arrested Jacob Haller. Mr. George has been granted a Civil Stalking Protection order in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas against Mr. Haller because of his conduct.

TownHall will not be making any further comments about this situation and will allow the legal process to play out.