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in our last exciting chapter, we had the question of defendant Anna Ayala's character brought to the notice of the court system. psst, she was the one who ate the finger-in-the-Wendy's-chili. eew?
http://baystar.blogspot.com/2005/04/chili-pot-plot-grows-thicker.html
there were doubts about the allegations and of the past civil lawsuits she had filed a numerous amount of times. now, let's join our chili-bandit in the final result of all of a nation's collective disgust.
look here, life ain't no ice cream sundae, but that doesn't mean that the only thing you can do to take care of yourself and your family, is to cheat the system. sure, there are inherent problems with every system, but think about it this way:
if she had focused all of her scheming energies into just trying to help her family out in a legal manner, who knows how successful she might've been as a person, and as a mother.
now she has her name and face plastered all over the media outlets, being labeled the crazy civil lawsuit chili finger lady. and that title seems to not have the same sweet ring to it, although it is semi-great reporting.
(disclaimer: again kasia should not read any further)
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Ayala charged with attempted grand theft in Wendy's finger case
Friday, April 22, 2005
The great chili con finger caper reached the boiling point as the woman who said she found the severed digit in her Wendy's meal was charged with trying to fleece the fast-food chain.
Anna Ayala, 39, was arrested at her Las Vegas home Thursday night on a charge of felony attempted grand theft, including a penalty enhancement for inflicting more than $2.5 million in losses on Wendy's. The chain says its sales have plummeted since Ayala reported chomping down on a bit of severed finger in a bowl of chili at a San Jose Wendy's one month ago today.
Ayala was also charged with felony grand theft in an unrelated case, for allegedly swindling a Spanish-speaking woman out of $11,000 by "selling" her a San Jose mobile home that Ayala didn't own between September 2002 and November 2003.
Ayala could face more than six years in prison if convicted.
She was being held without bail in the Clark County, Nev., jail. Her attorney said today that Ayala was innocent and that she would waive an extradition hearing, which should hasten her return to California to face charges.
Family friend Ken Bono said officers raided Ayala's home around 9 p.m. and caught Ayala alone as she was watching "Meet the Fockers" on video.
"I had just left to get some soda at the store, and when I came back she was gone and there were cars from the (Las Vegas and San Jose) police," said Bono, 23, who lives with Ayala.
Bono said Ayala will be exonerated. He said she has been unfairly targeted by the police and Wendy's. "They don't got jack s—. They got her for something she didn't do. It's just something Wendy's is trying to do to her," Bono said.
The arrest came a month after Ayala's March 22 visit to the Wendy's restaurant in San Jose on Monterey Road, where she says she bit into a 1½-inch fingertip as she ate her chili. Her report prompted several investigations -- including one by San Jose police and another by Wendy's, which concluded Thursday that the finger did not originate in its food preparations or ingredients.
Police investigators portray Ayala as a scam artist with a penchant for filing lawsuits who planted the finger, which tests showed had not been cooked in the chili, according to court records. They did not indicate where they thought the finger came from.
Police knitted together a circumstantial case in documents supporting the arrest warrant, noting that an initial forensic analysis showed the fingertip had not been cooked at 170 degrees for three hours, which is how Wendy's prepares its chili.
Additional analysis by a Kansas forensic food laboratory, which conducted sophisticated testing of whether the finger was cooked and at what temperature, "disproved some of the statements made by suspect Anna Ayala in regards to the finger in her chili," according to a statement by San Jose police Detective Christopher Wilson.
Although two of three relatives of Ayala told police she threw up after discovering the finger, police arriving at the Wendy's found no vomit and Wendy's employees said they had not cleaned up any, according to Wilson's statement. All the Wendy's workers and others present in the restaurant at the time denied involvement in the finger affair and passed voice stress analyzer tests, police said.
Meanwhile, Ayala refused to cooperate with San Jose investigators when they attempted to interview her April 14 in Las Vegas.
Police said they'd found that Ayala she has filed multiple civil claims, "at times settling cases for a cash payout,'' according to the statement. She and her her children have been involved in 13 civil actions in California and Nevada.
Ayala has said she received a $30,000 settlement from the El Pollo Loco restaurant chain after her 13-year-old daughter fell ill with food poisoning. But El Pollo Loco officials said Ayala had been paid nothing in response to her claim.
In 2000, Ayala filed a lawsuit against a San Jose car dealership, Goodyear Tire Corp. and General Motors Corp., and in 1999 she filed a sexual harassment suit against La Oferta Review, a San Jose Spanish-language newspaper.
At a press conference today, San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said investigators "have information that we're following up on" in the hunt for the source of the finger. He would not elaborate.
Asked for Ayala's reaction to the arrest, Davis said: "She was unhappy."
Ayala's San Jose defense attorney, Rick Ehler, declared her innocent as he arrived in Las Vegas for a jailhouse meeting with his client. Ehler said his client would waive extradition to California.
He said authorities "are trying to demonize" Ayala. He noted that the press and police had recently chased unfounded rumors that Ayala cut the finger from a dead aunt's hand or obtained it after a leopard chomped off a Nevada woman's digit.
"So far, every time they've come out with some new story it's been false," Ehler said.
Asked about press reports that Ayala had allegedly admitted to friends she planted the finger, Ehler said: "When you're Wendy's and you've got the kind of money that they have to throw around for investigators and you put a $100,000 reward out, I'm surprised there aren't more people who are willing to come forward and say all kinds of crazy things."
After her reported discovery of the finger, Ayala said she had trouble eating and sleeping and was forced to take medicine to help settle her nerves. At one point, she went on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" to recount her horror at finding the finger.
On April 6, investigators served a search warrant on Ayala's Las Vegas home. Ayala accused police of harassment. She initially filed a claim against Wendy's but withdrew it after the raid, saying the media and police scrutiny was causing her family "emotional distress."
"People can say what they want and destroy my family, but it's not true," Ayala said last week. "This is really ruining my kids and me and dragging my family through the mud. It's killing us."
Wendy's said it welcomed news of Ayala's arrest. "We're thrilled," said Tom Mueller, president and chief operating officer of Wendy's North America.
Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu called Wendy's and its employees the victims of a scam.
"We are always concerned about victims' rights," Sinunu said. "In this case there is a victim corporation, but that means that many workers are suffering because of the wrongdoing of the defendant.
"We are urging Americans to go back to Wendy's and enjoy a safe meal,'' the prosecutor said.
At today's press conference, the franchise holder of the San Jose Wendy's where the finger was found, Joseph Desmond, said that "all the little people who were hurt in our stores" deserved to be supported.
"Please come back to Wendy's because we do serve wonderful hamburgers, shakes and everything else," Desmond said.
Wendy's announced it would offer free Frosty shakes to all Bay Area customers this weekend as a show of goodwill and commitment in the wake of its investigation.
In addition to the Wendy's case, Ayala was charged Thursday with swindling Bertha Davila out of the down payment on a San Jose mobile home, which in reality was owned by Ayala's live-in boyfriend, according to a statement filed by San Jose police Detective Albert Morales.
Ayala allegedly told Davila she was selling the mobile home because she was moving to Las Vegas in October 2002. Davila didn't speak English and relied on Ayala to translate during a meeting with a real estate agent, Morales said. Ayala also claimed to have returned supposed sale documents signed by Davila to the agent.
But after Davila's family moved in the trailer, she was contacted by finance company saying the mobile home was in default on the mortgage and they had three days to vacate the property. When Davila confronted Ayala at her Las Vegas home in November 2003, Ayala allegedly refused to return the woman's money or answer questions.
The real estate agent told Davila that she had told Ayala that she would not be able to transact the mobile home sale and "Ayala did not translate that fact during the meeting," according to Morales' statement.
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