Common wisdom tells us not to irritate the people who make and serve our food, but rarely does the state crime lab get involved in such matters.
Julie Aluzzo-Yerdon and her husband Ken Yerdon were not having the best experience when they dined at Chili’s Restaurant earlier this year near Syracuse, NY. The food wasn’t cooked well, items were missing, and their server seemed to be irritated with them for pointing out when things were not right.
After getting his drink to-go, Yerdon noticed something wasn’t right after just one taste. A quick look revealed a substance that he described to reporter Jason Silverstein of the New York Daily News as a “loogie” [phlegm]. Putting two and two together, Yerdon concluded that the server, upset from the disagreements about the quality of food and service, took out his frustrations by spitting a load of saliva and mucus into his drink.
Yerdon and his wife reported their suspicions to the New York State Police who, perhaps surprisingly, decided to pursue the case. The waiter was identified as Gregory Lamica who was questioned. Initially, the Chili’s Restaurant stood by the accused server who denied doing anything of the kind.
However, in what may be the first use of forensic DNA technology in a case like this, the New York State Police took a cheek swab from Lamica and obtained a DNA profile, comparing it to that obtained from the mucus sample taken from Yerdon’s tainted drink. They were a perfect match.
Lamica pled to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and was forced to pay a fine of $125. However, the story will not end there. Yerdon has said that he intends to sue Lamica for emotional distress caused both by the incident itself and the long wait time while awaiting results of various laboratory tests. The DNA profiling itself took three months to come back. (State and local crime labs generally have long backlogs to process evidence from non-urgent, non-violent cases.) In addition, Yerdon had himself tested for infectious diseases including hepatitis and HIV.
It seems the question of whether angry servers spit in their customer’s drinks has been answered, if only in this one instance. Let’s hope it was only in this one case. I think I’ll be extra nice to my server tonight. Just in case.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEp9yODNjy4
DNA Nails Waiter Who Spit In Drink At Restaurant
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