DOCUMENT: Revolting, Crime

Ballpark Worker Spit In Pizza, Video Shows

Suspect, 20, fired from food job at Detroit stadium

9/25 UPDATE: Kerley has been charged with a felony Food Law Violations charge and a misdemeanor Food Law Violations count. The former charge carries a maximum four-year prison term. Kerley is scheduled to be arraigned this morning.

SEPTEMBER 24--A food services worker at Detroit’s Comerica Park stadium was recorded Friday spitting into a pizza he was preparing for a customer, a crime for which he is expected to soon be charged.

As seen in a brief video posted to a co-worker’s Instagram page, Jaylon Kerley, 20, spits into a tin containing pizza dough and then covers up his saliva with a ladle full of tomato sauce.

Kerley was recorded as he prepared a pizza during the September 21 Detroit Tigers game against the Kansas City Royals. Kerley was fired when Detroit Sportservice, which operates food concessions at the ballpark, learned of the video.

Kerley (seen at right) has been arrested by Detroit police and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is reviewing a warrant and preparing criminal charges in connection with the food tampering.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor said that a charging decision will be made tomorrow, “in time for morning arraignments” at a Detroit criminal courthouse.

A resident of Roseville, a Detroit suburb, Kerley is a 2016 high school graduate who has attended classes at Macomb Community College, according to his Facebook page, which declares, “I love meeting new people and talking to them too.” A photo uploaded in August 2017 shows Kerley wearing a shirt with the Comerica Park logo.

On Kerley’s Instagram page, visitors have left harsh comments referring to the ballpark video. “You nasty for spitting in that pizza,” one man wrote, while others referred to Kerley as a "bitch."