Possible civil lawsuit against Casey’s General Store after “pizza spitting” incident
A Clayton-based law firm representing the Hermann police chief is looking into filing a civil lawsuit against Casey’s General Store after an alleged food-tampering incident in December 2016.
In April, the Gasconade County prosecutor’s office filed two counts of felony harassment and a misdemeanor harassment charge against Daniel Robinson, 21, of Hermann. A probable cause statement claims Robinson was caught on video throwing pizza toppings on the floor before putting them on the pizza and serving it to Chief Marlon Walker and his two daughters on Dec. 2. He later admitted to also spitting on the pizza.
Grant Boyd, an attorney with Travis Noble’s law firm, said the civil suit would likely fall under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, which makes it illegal to sell or advertise goods with deception, false pretense or misrepresentation.
“Anytime that we go to a restaurant, we’re trusting someone with the care of our food and what we anticipate it to be,” Boyd said. “The idea that someone would violate that trust and a company would violate that trust in not informing people when they know that incident happened is pretty disgusting.”
Walker claims he learned about the food tampering weeks after it happened when the manager of the store told another Hermann police officer that “one of the officers had been served pizza that had been spat in.” Walker said he later confronted the manger, who confirmed it was Walker’s pizza.
According to a complaint and inspection report ABC 17 News requested from the Gasconade Health Department, officials went to the Casey’s General Store on Market Street on Feb. 27 to speak with the manager, Jennifer Penrod-Nicholas, after Walker filed a complaint against the restaurant.
Pernod-Nicholas told health department officials she reviewed the security footage of Robinson spitting on the pizza and fired him the next day. She said two other employees who witnessed the tampering were also suspended for three days. The manager said she believed it was an isolated incident and that no other actions were required by company policies. All three employees were no longer working at the Casey’s at the time of the inspection, according to Pernod-Nicholas.
Pernod-Nicholas declined comment on the incident Friday afternoon. ABC 17 News also left a message Friday afternoon with Casey’s General Store corporate offices, but did not hear back.
