mmmmm... chili....
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 38,617
Likes: 1
Chili saga gets hotter with new arrest
ACCUSED WOMAN'S SPOUSE HELD ON UNRELATED CHARGES
By Linda Goldston and Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
The chili finger saga got even spicier Wednesday: Anna Ayala's husband was arrested at the house the two shared in Las Vegas.
San Jose police said the arrest of James Plascencia on a $450,000 warrant was unrelated to the charges against his wife, which stem from the now notorious fingertip she said she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili.
Plascencia, 43, was taken into custody on four felony counts of failure to pay child support and child abandonment, one count of identity theft and one count of fraudulent use of official documents in San Jose.
``He was using his children's Social Security numbers and names in order to gain financially,'' said San Jose police officer Enrique Garcia, spokesman for the department. ``That will have future financial consequences for his kids.''
Police identified Plascencia as Ayala's husband and said he has been married more than once and has several children. Ayala has two teenage children of her own; Plascencia is not their father.
Garcia said Plascencia was booked into Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on Wednesday and will have a hearing to determine if he will fight extradition or agree to return to California. That's the same facility where his wife has been in custody since her arrest on April 21.
Plascencia's relatives in San Jose had denied the two were married or even still seeing each other. But a family member told the Mercury News last week that Plascencia had accompanied Ayala on a trip to Mexico, returning just days before the Wendy's incident on March 22.
That's when Ayala, who was having dinner with her in-laws at Wendy's in San Jose, said she chomped onto the fingertip after scooping a spoonful of chili into her mouth. She had filed a claim against the restaurant chain, only to drop it later.
Plascencia was the legal owner of the San Jose mobile home at the center of an alleged swindle that led to the second criminal charge now pending against Ayala. Santa Clara County prosecutors have accused Ayala of stealing $11,000 from a woman named Bertha Davila, who thought she was buying the mobile home from Ayala in 2002.
The would-be buyer was later evicted after a finance company foreclosed on the mobile home. Police said Davila had no idea that the mobile home's mortgage had gone into default.
Davila told a reporter that police initially declined to pursue her complaint, saying it was a civil matter. But she said they took another look after the Wendy's incident.
Property records show Ayala paid $10,000 down on a two-story house in Las Vegas in September 2002, just days after she accepted the money from Davila. Other records show a phone was listed in Plascencia's name at that Las Vegas address, and that he received mail there.
Plascencia's recent whereabouts have been something of a mystery. Neighbors said they had not seen him at the house in recent weeks, and a young man who rented a room at the house said Plascencia had left Nevada. But relatives of Plascencia's and Ayala's have told reporters he was still in Las Vegas.
Two officers from San Jose flew to Las Vegas and were assisted by the Metro Police Department there in making the arrest Wednesday. Because he lives in Nevada and the arrest warrant is out of San Jose, Plascencia is being held without bail. When he returns to Santa Clara County, his bail will be $450,000.
``None of these charges has anything to do with Wendy's at all,'' Garcia said. ``He hasn't been paying child support.''
ACCUSED WOMAN'S SPOUSE HELD ON UNRELATED CHARGES
By Linda Goldston and Brandon Bailey
Mercury News
The chili finger saga got even spicier Wednesday: Anna Ayala's husband was arrested at the house the two shared in Las Vegas.
San Jose police said the arrest of James Plascencia on a $450,000 warrant was unrelated to the charges against his wife, which stem from the now notorious fingertip she said she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili.
Plascencia, 43, was taken into custody on four felony counts of failure to pay child support and child abandonment, one count of identity theft and one count of fraudulent use of official documents in San Jose.
``He was using his children's Social Security numbers and names in order to gain financially,'' said San Jose police officer Enrique Garcia, spokesman for the department. ``That will have future financial consequences for his kids.''
Police identified Plascencia as Ayala's husband and said he has been married more than once and has several children. Ayala has two teenage children of her own; Plascencia is not their father.
Garcia said Plascencia was booked into Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on Wednesday and will have a hearing to determine if he will fight extradition or agree to return to California. That's the same facility where his wife has been in custody since her arrest on April 21.
Plascencia's relatives in San Jose had denied the two were married or even still seeing each other. But a family member told the Mercury News last week that Plascencia had accompanied Ayala on a trip to Mexico, returning just days before the Wendy's incident on March 22.
That's when Ayala, who was having dinner with her in-laws at Wendy's in San Jose, said she chomped onto the fingertip after scooping a spoonful of chili into her mouth. She had filed a claim against the restaurant chain, only to drop it later.
Plascencia was the legal owner of the San Jose mobile home at the center of an alleged swindle that led to the second criminal charge now pending against Ayala. Santa Clara County prosecutors have accused Ayala of stealing $11,000 from a woman named Bertha Davila, who thought she was buying the mobile home from Ayala in 2002.
The would-be buyer was later evicted after a finance company foreclosed on the mobile home. Police said Davila had no idea that the mobile home's mortgage had gone into default.
Davila told a reporter that police initially declined to pursue her complaint, saying it was a civil matter. But she said they took another look after the Wendy's incident.
Property records show Ayala paid $10,000 down on a two-story house in Las Vegas in September 2002, just days after she accepted the money from Davila. Other records show a phone was listed in Plascencia's name at that Las Vegas address, and that he received mail there.
Plascencia's recent whereabouts have been something of a mystery. Neighbors said they had not seen him at the house in recent weeks, and a young man who rented a room at the house said Plascencia had left Nevada. But relatives of Plascencia's and Ayala's have told reporters he was still in Las Vegas.
Two officers from San Jose flew to Las Vegas and were assisted by the Metro Police Department there in making the arrest Wednesday. Because he lives in Nevada and the arrest warrant is out of San Jose, Plascencia is being held without bail. When he returns to Santa Clara County, his bail will be $450,000.
``None of these charges has anything to do with Wendy's at all,'' Garcia said. ``He hasn't been paying child support.''
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 38,617
Likes: 1
Justice:
Guilty pleas in Wendy's chili finger case
DA WILL LIKELY SEEK THE MAXIMUM SENTENCES
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News
The two suspects in the Wendy's chili finger case pleaded guilty today to all charges against them -- including those unrelated to the scheme to defraud the fast food company.
Jaime Plascencia, 43, and Anna Ayala, 39, pleaded guilty to two felony charges in connection with the Wendy's case: conspiracy to file a false insurance claim and attempted grand theft with damages exceeding $2.5 million.
Prosecutors contended they meant to extract a large amount of money from Wendy's in a settlement and that their crime cost the company and its employees a great deal of money because of the bad publicity.
The maximum prison sentence for all the counts is more than nine years and eight months for Ayala and 13 years for Plascencia. Judge Edward Davila said he plans to order each of them to pay restitution of between $200 to $10,000. The judge said he has wide latitude in sentencing, saying he could even put them on probation.
Guilty pleas in Wendy's chili finger case
DA WILL LIKELY SEEK THE MAXIMUM SENTENCES
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News
The two suspects in the Wendy's chili finger case pleaded guilty today to all charges against them -- including those unrelated to the scheme to defraud the fast food company.
Jaime Plascencia, 43, and Anna Ayala, 39, pleaded guilty to two felony charges in connection with the Wendy's case: conspiracy to file a false insurance claim and attempted grand theft with damages exceeding $2.5 million.
Prosecutors contended they meant to extract a large amount of money from Wendy's in a settlement and that their crime cost the company and its employees a great deal of money because of the bad publicity.
The maximum prison sentence for all the counts is more than nine years and eight months for Ayala and 13 years for Plascencia. Judge Edward Davila said he plans to order each of them to pay restitution of between $200 to $10,000. The judge said he has wide latitude in sentencing, saying he could even put them on probation.
^
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 38,617
Likes: 1
The local news last night covered what happened to the employees of that Wendy's. They actually read statements in court before sentencing. A lot of them lost hours since people weren't going to that restaurant. They had to go through polygraph tests as well. The drive-thru guy had chili thrown in his face. 
