A 44-year-old woman was acquitted Tuesday of battery in a case involving an August incident in a San Francisco Starbucks in which she was accused of spitting at a barista and hitting her with granola bars, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced.
After viewing video footage of the incident, a jury found the woman, Carrie Moon, had been “acting unconsciously” and had been suffering from mental delusions, Adachi said in a statement.
The footage showed Moon behaving erratically in the coffee house, removing clothing and tossing a handful of cereal bars toward the cash register.
The battery charge – for which Moon could have faced up to six months in jail – arose when the barista accused Moon of spitting food at her and intentionally hitting her with a granola bar.
In the video, however, Moon does not appear to spit, and the barista was not apparently hit by a cereal bar.
Deputy Public Defender Nick Vangrin said:
“Ms. Moon was suffering from mental delusions and hallucinations that made her unaware of what she was doing.”
Vangrin noted the jury recognized that the law does not punish people who have no control over their actions.
Last modified October 13, 2018 9:01 am
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