2015/06/04

syracuse June 2, 2015: Customer suspects annoyed waiter spit in soda; police use DNA to prove it

Police use DNA to solve murder mysteries and rapes.

They used it last year to determine who spit into a customer's soda at a Chili's restaurant in Clay.

Related story: 5 tales of angry food servers contaminating the orders they deliver. 
The state police crime lab compared DNA from some spit that Ken Yerdon found inside his soda with a swab of saliva from the man who had waited on Yerdon at Chili's – Gregory Lamica.

The DNA was a match, according to court papers. Lamica was charged with disorderly conduct and pleaded guilty.

Yerdon and his wife, Julie Aluzzo-Yerdon, had dinner at Chili's on Route 31 on July 28, as they did about once a week. Lamica, then 24, was their waiter.

They had a couple minor complaints – undercooked broccoli and chips not being served, they said. They told Lamica and he seemed annoyed with them, Ken Yerdon said.

"They were busy -- we understood," Julie Aluzzo-Yerdon said. "We were patient with him, but we could tell he was annoyed with us. All Ken said to him was, 'Are you OK? Have we done something to offend you?' And he said, 'Oh, no, no." more