Jason Kerley, 20, faces jail after allegedly spitting on a pizza intended for customers
A 20-year-old food service worker at Comerica Park in Detroit has been charged after he was filmed appearing to spit on a pizza intended for customers.
Jason Kerley was filmed working in a food stand when the Detroit Tigers were hosting the Kansas City Royals on Friday.
Footage of the incident appears to show Kerley spitting out a large string of saliva onto a pizza before he mixes it in with the sauce.
After the clip went viral on social media, police investigated, and the man is now facing jail time.
Kerley was charged with a felony count of food law violations that’s punishable by up to four years behind bars and a misdemeanor count of food law violations that’s punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
He is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday.
There is no lawyer listed for Kerley, AP reported, and he may struggle to afford one, as he was fired after his arrest on Sunday.
The person who originally posted the video to Instagram, Quinelle May, claimed Kerley was ‘mad and having a bad day’ when he spat on the pizza – but also said he had done it in the past.
In the video caption, May described how he reported the video to management but was shut down and sent home.
‘Every time I tried to talk, they told me to shut up,’ he said.
May claimed he was threatened with prosecution if he didn’t take the video down.
The person who originally posted the video claimed Kerley was ‘mad and having a bad day’ when he decided to spit into the food, but said he had done it before
Detroit Sportservice, the stadium’s food provider, has since released a statement, claiming the company: ‘immediately closed that food stand and disposed of all the product’ after the video surfaced.
‘As soon as we became aware through social media of potential food tampering Friday night, we immediately closed that food stand and disposed of all the product,’ it read.
‘Food safety is our top priority and we will take any appropriate action necessary to protect our guests.’
Ballpark officials confirmed Kerley was fired after the ‘food tampering’ video surfaced