SMOOTHIE CRIMINAL
'Hate-crime' slap & job ax in café tirade
A Merrill Lynch financial adviser from Connecticut who was arrested for allegedly throwing a smoothie at a teenage employee and calling her a “f--king immigrant loser” has been fired after footage of his racist rant went viral.
James Iannazzo, 48, was arrested and charged with a hate crime following the chaotic scene at Robeks in Fairfield just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the Fairfield Police Department said.
Dad’s ‘allergic’ reaction
The wild encounter erupted when an irate Iannazzo returned to the juice-chain location after earlier ordering and taking home a smoothie that supposedly contained peanuts, which caused his highly allergic son to have a reaction and require hospitalization, authorities said.
A remorseful Iannazzo said Monday in a statement that he was “out of my mind with fear” for his son and insisted that he told staff about the peanut allergy when he ordered the drink — despite employees telling cops the father had just asked for no peanut butter.
Video taken by one of the workers and viewed millions of times on Twitter and TikTok shows Iannazzo standing at the counter repeatedly demanding to know who made the drink.
Iannazzo lashes out and calls the staffers “f--king stupid, f--king ignorant high-school kids” when they couldn’t tell him who had made it, according to the footage.
He then allegedly called one worker, high-school student Gianna Miranda, a “f--king bitch,” and hurled the drink at her, striking her shoulder. Iannazzo continued his expletive-ridden outburst before allegedly calling Miranda a “f--king immigrant loser.”
“It was kind of scary, I’m not going to lie because I’m like, ‘I don’t know his intention or what he was going to do,’ ” Miranda told local TV station WTNH. “I really thought he was gonna throw something again or try to hit me or just something.”
Miranda, who repeatedly told Iannazzo to get out of the store and contact corporate, said she had never encountered a customer “this aggressive” in her 10 months working at the store.
Expresses regret
A spokesman for Merrill Lynch told The Post that Iannazzo, who had been with the wealth-management firm since 1995, was fired on Sunday as a result of the incident. Iannazzo’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a managing director at the firm.
Iannazzo, who turned himself in to police after the incident, added in his statement that he made the “regrettable comments” after his 17-year-old son went into “life threatening anaphylactic shock,” and said the boy is “doing OK” after being treated at a hospital.
The dad is due in Bridgeport Superior Court Feb. 7 on charges of intimidation based on bigotry or bias, breach of peace and criminal trespass.