American woman who brought a fraudulent tort lawsuit against a Wendy’s restaurant in San Jose, California. On March 22, 2005, Ayala alleged that she had found a severed human finger in her chili and sued Wendy’s, a fast-food restaurant chain. After an investigation by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s Office and the San Jose Police Department, it was determined that the finger did not come from a Wendy’finger food employee, or from any employee at the facilities that provided ingredients in the chili.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department investigated Ayala’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada but did not disclose details on their investigation. Rumors spread that Ayala had a dead aunt who might be related to the case, although Ayala denied that anyone had recently died. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested Ayala on April 21, 2005, taking her to the Clark County Detention Center. Ayala was charged with felony attempted grand larceny and grand theft. Prosecutors portrayed Ayala as a scam artist with a penchant for filing lawsuits.
According to court records, tests indicated that the finger had not been cooked in the chili. They did not indicate where they believed the finger came from. At a press conference held in San Jose, on April 22, 2005, local Wendy’s franchise holder Joseph Desmond urged people to “please come back to Wendy’s because we do serve wonderful hamburgers, shakes and everything else. Wendy’s announced that, on that weekend, it would offer free Frosty shakes with any purchase to all Bay Area customers as a show of goodwill and commitment in the wake of its investigation. On May 13, 2005, police announced that they had identified the finger as belonging to Brian Paul Rossiter, an associate of Ayala’s husband. Rossiter had lost his finger in an industrial accident at an asphalt company in December 2004 and had subsequently sold the finger to Ayala’s husband in order to settle a debt. On September 9, 2005, in San Jose, Ayala and her husband, Jaime Plascencia, pled guilty to conspiring to file a false claim and attempted grand theft.
Ayala was subsequently banned for life from all Wendy’s locations. On January 18, 2006, Ayala was sentenced to nine years in state prison. Her husband, who supplied the finger, was sentenced to 12 years, 4 months in prison. In her appeal to reduce her sentence, the Sixth District Court of Appeal agreed with her, saying that Judge Edward Davila’s decision to impose five years for “aggravating circumstances” was based on his own fact-finding and not on a jury’s conclusions. According to The New York Times, Ayala has a history of lawsuits, filing at least 13 different civil actions in California and Nevada which involved her or her children, some of which involved out-of-court cash settlements. In 2004, she lost a suit against a San Jose car dealership, General Motors Corp.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, claiming that a wheel fell off her car. 30,000 in damages for medical expenses after her daughter, Genesis, contracted salmonella poisoning after eating at one of their Las Vegas-area restaurants. In 2013, Ayala made international headlines again after being sentenced to two years in prison for being an accessory to a felony, filing a false police report, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. In October 2012, her son, Guadalupe Reyes, accidentally shot himself in the ankle. Reyes was not allowed to have the gun because he was on parole.
Wendy’s “Chili Finger Lady” Comes Clean”. Couple Sentenced to Prison for Wendy’s Chili Scheme”. Wendy’s chili ‘Finger Lady’ back in San Jose, but banned from restaurant”. Chili finger scammer headed back to prison”. Woman Who Found Finger Has Litigious History”. New twist in trail of severed finger”. Finger put in Wendy’s chili was cooked first”.
Stiff sentences for Wendy’s chili-finger couple”. San Jose ‘chili-finger lady’ to get two years for new hoax”. The five-rayed anterior limbs of terrestrial vertebrates can be derived phylogenetically from the pectoral fins of fish. Within the taxa of the terrestrial vertebrates, the basic pentadactyl plan, and thus also the fingers and phalanges, undergoe many variations. In the case of Primates in general, the digits of the hand are overwhelmingly referred to as “fingers”. The term fingers is used for canines, felines and ungulates only in comparative morphology, not in colloquial language, because they have paws or forelegs with hooves, none of which can engage in fine manipulation with their forelimbs as a primate can.
The palm has five bones known as metacarpal bones, one to each of the five digits. These are the distal phalanx, carrying the nail, the middle phalanx, and the proximal phalanx. Joints are formed wherever two or more of these bones meet. Sesamoid bones are small ossified nodes embedded in the tendons to provide extra leverage and reduce pressure on the underlying tissue. The articulations are: interphalangeal articulations between phalangeal bones, and metacarpophalangeal joints connecting the phalanges to the metacarpal bones.
Each finger may flex and extend, abduct and adduct, and so also circumduct. The muscles that move the finger joints are in the palm and forearm. The long tendons that deliver motion from the forearm muscles may be observed to move under the skin at the wrist and on the back of the hand. Muscles of the fingers can be subdivided into extrinsic and intrinsic muscles.
The extrinsic muscles are the long flexors and extensors. They are called extrinsic because the muscle belly is located on the forearm. The fingers have two long flexors, located on the underside of the forearm. They insert by tendons to the phalanges of the fingers. The deep flexor attaches to the distal phalanx, and the superficial flexor attaches to the middle phalanx. The flexors allow for the actual bending of the fingers.
The thumb has one long flexor and a short flexor in the thenar muscle group. The extensors are located on the back of the forearm and are connected in a more complex way than the flexors to the dorsum of the fingers. The tendons unite with the interosseous and lumbrical muscles to form the extensorhood mechanism. The primary function of the extensors is to straighten out the digits. Although a common phenomenon, the underlying functions and mechanism of fingertip wrinkling following immersion in water are relatively unexplored. Fingertips, after having been torn off children, have been observed to regrow in less than 8 weeks.