Ex-Mount Olive chef is indicted for spitting on food

A chef who was fired after he allegedly spat on a customer’s bread at Kennedy’s Pub in Mount Olive was indicted Thursday on a charge of tampering with food.

A Morris County grand jury issued an indictment that charges John F. Stagg Jr., 32, of Great Meadows, a section of Independence Township, with one count of knowingly tampering “with a cosmetic, drug or food product” on Oct. 17. The third-degree charge is punishable upon conviction by up to five years in prison.

Stagg was last in Superior Court, Morristown, in December, and a Morris County assistant prosecutor then offered him a plea deal of three years in state prison. The hefty offer is based, at least in part, on Stagg’s criminal history which includes a prior robbery conviction for which he spent time in state prison. If a person doesn’t have a criminal record, there is a presumption against the defendant going to prison.

Defense lawyer Elizabeth Martin said at the December hearing that Stagg rejected the offer and the charge should be presented to a county grand jury.

Stagg was charged by Mount Olive police on Oct. 19 with tampering with food and a disorderly persons offense of creating a hazardous or physically dangerous condition through an act that serves no legitimate purpose. On Oct. 17, he allegedly was spotted by a co-worker spitting on the bread that went along with a pasta dish that a 51-year-old female patron had sent back to the pub’s kitchen.

Stagg was fired after the reported incident and a township health inspector paid a visit, finding four health violations, which were quickly corrected. The pub now is under new management.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com.