San Jose resident charged with hate crime against fast food chain employees

For release on March 24, 2021

CONTACT:

Byron Suarez
Deputy District Attorney
North County Office 
(650) 324-6409

San Jose resident charged with hate crime against fast food chain employees 

A 40-year-old San Jose resident has been charged with a hate crime for attacking a Mountain View McDonald’s employee and his manager while referring to them as “Stupid and “F-ing” Mexicans.

The two employees had asked Alena Jenkins to leave because she refused to wear a protective face mask.

Jenkins will face the hate crime and a battery charge, both misdemeanors, when she is arraigned today at 1:30 in D24 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.

“Targeting people because of their perceived ethnicity is not just a shame, it’s a crime,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen. “There is no excuse for hatred.”

On March 20, 2021 at 6:45 a.m., Jenkins was eating inside McDonald’s, maskless, in violation of the restaurant’s COVID-19 restrictions which prohibit patrons from dining inside the premises. When a McDonald’s employee repeatedly asked the defendant to leave, she refused and called the employee: “(Expletives deleted) Mexican! Go ahead and call the cops!” When the employee called the police, the defendant shoved a COVID plexiglass shield and a sign at the employee.

At this same time, the store manager became alerted to the situation and asked the defendant to leave. Jenkins responded by walking around the front counter, calling the manager a “stupid Mexican,” and used her fist to strike him on the arm and shoulder.

Once police arrived on scene, Jenkins continued to make racially charged comments to officers about McDonald’s store employees calling them: “dumb Mexicans…who don’t know how to speak English.”

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