Food spit will cost man 29 months in jail

A former McDonald's worker in Michigan with a lengthy criminal record will serve 29 months in prison for spitting on a police officer's food and serving it. Dalton Ursulean, 24, a Niagara, Wis., native was working at a McDonald's restaurant in Iron Mountain, Mich., last November when he served an officer in uniform working for the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center. Prosecutors said Ursulean spit into a snack wrap the officer ordered and gave it to him. Ursulean was sentenced Monday to a minimum 29 months in prison after pleading guilty to a single felony count of placing harmful objects in food, The (Iron Mountain) Daily News reported. Blood tests after the incident showed Ursulean has hepatitis C though his lawyer said Ursulean was unaware of his condition until after the incident and didn't intend to sicken the officer. Prosecutors said the officer was tested for the disease and it came back negative. Noting Ursulean's lengthy history of run-ins with the law -- he's been arrested numerous times and been involved in nine jail incidents since being incarcerated nearly a year ago for the spitting incident -- the judge opted to impose a longer sentence than the parameters of a plea deal struck between prosecutors and the defense. Dickinson County Circuit Judge Mary Barglind opted to increase Ursulean's sentence beyond the time he's already served -- 347 days -- giving him the 29-month minimum sentence in state prison. Prosecutors had suggested Ursulean serve no more than a year, meaning he would continue to be housed at the county jail, not a state prison. Barglind said she agreed with a Michigan Department of Corrections report calling for the minimum 29-month sentence, noting Ursulean's criminal history. The charge carries a maximum 20-year sentence.