Throwing food at people has led to serious criminal charges for some
While federal prosecutors failed to get a felony indictment against a man for throwing a sandwich at a law enforcement officer in Washington, D.C., (He was later charged with a misdemeanor) people have faced serious consequences for hurling food.
• In Ohio in 2023, a woman was sentenced to a month in jail, along with two months working a fast food job, after pleading guilty to throwing a bowl of hot food in the face of a Chipotle worker. Rosemary Hayne was captured on video throwing food at the worker at close range. Hayne, 39, and a mother of four, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. Municipal Court Judge Timothy Gilligan offered her a choice: 90 days in jail or 30 days, plus 60 days working in a fast food job.
• Last year in Clearwater, Florida, a man was charged with domestic battery for throwing pieces of chicken at his sister. Khanye Edrayieze Medley, 20, and his sister “were in a verbal altercation when the defendant grabbed a bag of chicken from the victim and began to throw pieces of Church’s Chicken at her,” according to the police report. “One piece of fried chicken hit the victim in the back and left debris of food on her shoulders.” The man told police “he did this because he had not eaten and did not want the piece of chicken the victim offered him, so he became upset.”
• In 2008, a man ran up to Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas and hit him in the face with a pie during an Independence Day parade. Matthew Manning, 23, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to spend five days on a work crew and apologized. Manning was dressed as Santa Claus during the parade in Mt. Pelier, and hit the govenor with a pie before being tackled.
• In 2010, four middle school students in Valparaiso, Indiana, were arrested on battery charges for starting a food fight in the cafeteria on the last day of school. The boys, all 14, were released to their parents.
• In Greenville, South Carolina, in 2022, police charged a man with third-degree assault and battery after several people reported being hit with whipped cream pies. Andre Eugene Moore-Gerald, 22, was identified through surveillance video footage as well as YouTube videos he created. “A woman was walking on the sidewalk, pushing her child in a stroller, when the pictured suspect hit her in the face with a plate of whipped cream,” police said. “There have been multiple incidents of this occurring today.”
• A teenage girl in Chicago was charged in 2023 with throwing food at a Chicago Transit Authority employee. The girl, 17, began arguing with a CTA employee on a bus, police said. When the argument escalated, the girl threw food at the 60-year-old worker, according to police. She was charged with aggravated battery of a transit employee.
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