Unsatisfied with the state of her burrito bowl, 39-year-old Rosemary Hayne responded by throwing it in the face of a 26-year-old Chipotle employee.
Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy Stock PhotoRosemary Hayne threw her burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker during a dinner rush in September 2023.
On Sept. 5, 2023, an Ohio woman assaulted a Chipotle employee by tossing her burrito bowl in her face. Now, a judge has handed down an unusual punishment: working a fast food job for 60 days.
A video of the incident surfaced on Reddit, which shows the assailant, Rosemary Hayne, screaming and throwing a tantrum in a busy Chipotle in Parma, Ohio. She then tosses her burrito bowl in the face of store manager Emily Russell, who had just remade Hayne’s order.
“I didn’t expect it at all,” Russell, 26, told The New York Times. “I just blinked and there was sour cream dripping from my hair.”
The restaurant had been short-staffed throughout the day and was experiencing a high volume of customers when the incident occurred. Russell stepped in to assist her staff in fulfilling orders, but Hayne, 39, was evidently not satisfied with her meal.
Of course, hurling a hot bowl of food into an employee’s face is hardly an appropriate response — and the judge overseeing Hayne’s case seemed to agree.
“You didn’t get your burrito bowl the way you like it and this is how you respond?” Judge Timothy Gilligan said during sentencing, per local station WJW. “This is not Real Housewives of Parma. This behavior is not acceptable.”
Hayne ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to 180 days in jail with 90 days suspended. But Gilligan offered Hayne an alternative: She would only have to spend 30 days behind bars if she agreed to work 20 hours a week in a fast food restaurant for 60 days.
Hayne agreed to the judge’s deal, and she must complete her sentence as a fast food employee by the time she reports to jail in March.
In court, Hayne apologized for her actions and admitted there was no excuse for the way she had behaved — only to then double down by stating that she was unhappy with how her food was prepared.
“If I showed you how my food looked and how my food looked a week later from that same restaurant… it’s disgusting looking,” Hayne said.
“I bet you won’t be happy with the food you are going to get in the jail,” Judge Gilligan fired back.
Reddit39-year-old Rosemary Hayne throwing her burrito bowl in the face of 26-year-old Chipotle employee Emily Russell.
Hayne’s lawyer, Joseph O’Malley, said he felt that her sentencing was fair.
“Here’s a lady that’s almost 40 years old, that never had any type of criminal record at all and then has this one bad day,” he said. “I was imploring the judge to not let this one day define her.”
He added that Hayne has had several interviews for fast food jobs, but at the time of reporting, it is unclear if she has been hired for any position.
“I thought she was going to get a slap on the wrist, but she didn’t. She is going to get to walk in my shoes,” Russell said of Hayne’s sentencing.
Russell said she still thinks back on the day of the incident, with her face red and irritated from the burning hot food, when she called her mother crying — and then went back to finish the rest of her shift before going to the hospital.
She has since left Chipotle, saying that she didn’t feel supported by the chain after she was required to finish the remaining four hours of her shift following the incident and still come in the next day. She now works at another fast food chain, Raising Cane’s, and said the Chipotle incident did not deter her from remaining in the industry.
“I’ve been in the food industry for nine years, and I love it,” she said. “I just love customers.”
As for the atypical sentencing, Judge Gilligan said he wanted to come up with a punishment that fit the crime — one that would hopefully teach Hayne a lesson.
“I thought, ‘Why should the city taxpayers pay for her and feed her for 90 days in the jail if I can teach her a sense of empathy?'” he said. “I also hope this deters others from this type of behavior.”
After reading about the woman who was sentenced to work in a fast food restaurant after throwing a burrito bowl in a Chipotle employee’s face, read about the time a Wendy’s employee received death threats over the amount of cucumbers in a customer’s salad. Or, learn about the time a judge put a drunk driver’s mom in prison for laughing at the victim’s family.
