An Ohio woman who threw a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker and was convicted of assault has been given an unusual sentence that includes working at a fast-food restaurant for two months.
In September, during a food rush and while a Parma restaurant was short-staffed, Emily Russell, the store manager at the time, said she placed an order for Rosemary Hayne and then placed it again.
Ms Hayne was not happy with the final product. In a widely shared video online, she can be seen shouting at Ms Russell before throwing the burrito bowl in her face.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” said Ms. Russell, 26. “I just blinked and there was sour cream dripping out of my hair.”
Eventually, someone called the police, Ms. Russell said.
Parma Municipal Court Judge Timothy Gilligan sentenced Ms. Hayne to 180 days in jail, with 90 days suspended, court records show.
The judge offered her the chance to shorten her sentence, with a catch: 60 of those days would be suspended if she worked 20 hours a week for 60 days at a fast-food restaurant, said Joseph O’Malley, the Attorney for Ms. Hayne.
Ms Hayne, 39, agreed to take up his offer, he said. By the time she reports to prison in March, she must have completed her time as a fast food worker.
Mr O’Malley said he thought the sentence was fair.
“Here’s a woman who’s almost 40 years old, has never had a criminal record, and then she has this one bad day,” he said. “I begged the judge not to let this define me one day.”
Ms. Hayne has had interviews, but it is unclear whether she has landed a fast-food job yet, Mr. O’Malley said.
The conviction came as a surprise to Ms Russell.
“I thought she was going to get a slap on the wrist, but she didn’t. She will follow in my footsteps,” Ms. Russell said.
She said she still thinks about the day she went to the back of the restaurant to wipe down the food. Her face was red and irritated because the hot food hit it, she said.
She called her mother, cried and then finished the remaining four hours of her shift, she said. She then went to a hospital and was released soon after.
Ms. Russell has since left her job at Chipotle.
She said she felt unsupported by the chain after she worked the rest of her shift that night and had no vacation the next day.
Chipotle did not immediately respond to comment late Wednesday evening.
Now Ms. Russell works at Raising Cane’s, a fast-food chain based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and she hasn’t let the incident cloud her view of the restaurant industry.
“I’ve been in the food industry for nine years and I love it,” she said. “I just love customers.”