A former McDonald’s worker who claimed to be falsely accused of putting glass in a cop’s Big Mac has received his own whopper of a settlement with New York City paying him $437,000 for his troubles.
While Bronx man Albert Garcia’s suit against Officer John Florio was dismissed back in 2012, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, agreed to hear his argument.
With that, the unusual settlement was struck.
“The settlement was considered to be in the best interest of the parties,” a rep for the city’s Law Department said.
Garcia’s representatives did not return requests for comment.
Florio’s lawyer, Richard Kenny, was less reserved.
“Are you kidding me?” he told reporters.
It all started when Florio pulled into a Bronx McDonald’s drive-thru with his dog partner on a late evening in January, 2005.
He said he found some broken glass mixed into the special sauce when he bit down into the patty.
Garcia, 18 at the time, was subsequently arrested.
Though he confessed to giving Florio something extra in his order, he later recanted.
After three weeks in court it took a jury just 30 minutes to clear him, with Garcia’s lawyer finding discrepancies in Florio’s story.
Kenny called the idea his client would cook up the burger story a pack of lies.
“John Florio was as good a man as I’ve ever had the privilege of representing – decent and moral,” he said.
Garcia had a civil suit thrown out several months later by a Bronx judge.
Florio filed his own suit against the McDonald’s which was settled for $15,000 in 2009.
