Former Hereford House worker allegedly urinated in food, rubbed it on genitals: affidavit

A former worker at the Hereford House in Leawood allegedly posted videos online of himself urinating in food and rubbing food items on his genitals, according to court documents released Wednesday afternoon.

The Johnson County district attorney charged 21-year-old Jace Christian Hanson, of Kansas City, last week with one felony count of unlawfully adulterating or contaminating food at the restaurant at 5001 Town Center Drive in Leawood’s Town Center Plaza.

The court documents reveal some answers that customers have sought after the food contamination first was announced, including what type of bodily fluids were involved and how Hanson had allegedly contaminated the food.

According to the affidavit, videos posted on a website under the username of “Vandalizer” showed a man urinating in restaurant-style food bins, pressing his penis and buttocks against food and using his feet to touch food items.

The titles of the videos made reference to the specific acts shown in each one, including, “Spitting on everything in restaurant part 2.”

FBI receives tip about contaminated food

The FBI contacted Leawood police, notifying investigators about a tip on a restaurant employee contaminating food by urinating in food or rubbing food items on his genitals and posting videos online. The FBI provided thumbnail photographs of the videos to police.

A special agent with the FBI checked Internet Protocol addresses, the numeric addresses given to a computer connected to the internet, and located an associated phone number belonging to Hanson.

Due to public health concerns, the FBI pinged the phone’s location, which revealed it was near Town Center Drive and Roe Avenue. A detective later checked the parking lot of the Hereford House and found a vehicle registered to Hanson.

Three Leawood detectives contacted the restaurant’s manager, who called the head chef to the front. Police showed the chef images from the videos, and the chef quickly recognized one of the thumbnails to be the Au Jus sauce for the restaurant, according to the affidavit.

Hanson, who was at the restaurant working, was asked to step out of the kitchen. One of the detectives observed the shoes he was wearing allegedly were “consistent with the shoes observed in at least three video thumbnails.”

According to the affidavit, Hanson was then asked if he was aware of any food contamination.

”I’ll just be straight up, yeah,” Hanson said, according to the affidavit. He added that he’d “just been doing stupid s--t.”

Requested to make videos

Hanson allegedly said he had been in contact with men online who he communicated with using dating apps and who had made requests for him to make videos. The acts, which he described to law enforcement, were to be filmed and posted online, he said, according to court documents.

Hanson said he met the men through the dating apps. They also communicated through Snapchat, Hanson said.

When asked to clarify what he was doing, Hanson allegedly told police that he had been urinating in food, rubbing food on his penis and shoving food items down his pants. Hanson estimated he had contaminated food in more than 20 incidents.

Hanson told police he worked at the restaurant for about a month and the first time he allegedly contaminated food was about a week and half after he started because he did not enjoy the job at first. Although he told police he started to enjoy the job slightly more, the acts continued, according to the affidavit.

The last known act Hanson admitted to occurred on April 23. He told police he put lettuce down his pants against his penis before returning it to the storage tray to be served later.

”Hanson acknowledged that while he was not sure how much contaminated food was served to customers, he is sure that food products that he contaminated in various ways were served and consumed by unsuspecting customers,” a Leawood police detective wrote in the affidavit.

Hanson was arrested at 2 p.m. April 25 and was booked into Johnson County jail, where he is being held on $100,000 bond. Prosecutors charged Hanson the next day.

When prosecutors announced the following Tuesday that Hanson had been charged, they asked customers who fell ill after eating at the restaurant between March 26 and April 25 to contact Leawood police at tips@leawood.org or 913-266-0696.

As of Friday, nearly 140 people had contacted police regarding the investigation, said Capt. Brad Robbins with the Leawood Police Department. Not all of the callers had gotten ill, some were seeking additional information.

Once it learned of the tampering, the restaurant destroyed all the food and thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the kitchen and adjacent areas, Hereford House said in a statement.

An attorney representing Hanson did not immediately respond to a request from The Star for comment Wednesday afternoon.