'Egg hog' pleads guilty to vandalizing Ace Biscuit & Barbecue in Charlottesville

Emerson Linden Lopez Stern, 24, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a deal that frees him from jail but makes him pay what insurance won’t cover.

“We’re still sorting out what the out-of-pocket cost is,” said prosecutor Will Tanner. “They’re continuing to find damage.”

Tanner, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, signed off on the deal that bails Stern from jail with an active sentence of “time served” and has him accepting two felony charges: destruction of property and breaking into a building to commit a felony.

Tanner told the Charlottesville Circuit Court that security cameras at Ace Biscuit & Barbecue caught a man perpetrating the damage at the Concord Avenue establishment and that three employees identified Stern as the perpetrator and as a recently terminated employee.

“That’s not accurate,” Stern interjected. “I was not fired.”

His lawyer, public defender Hayley Setear, urged him not to speak out of turn, and the hearing resumed without incident.

Police reports, prosecutor statements and photographs posted by the restaurant portray an orgy of destruction that began around 2:30 a.m. on March 30. Toilets were smashed, computer screens were hammered, liquor bottles were destroyed by the dozen and oil from deep fryers was dumped.

“We’re still finding stuff,” Ace owner Stefan Friedman told The Daily Progress.

“It’s so absurd,” Friedman continued. “He opened all the taps of the beer to let it flood onto the floor; so seven kegs, at about 30 gallons each, seeped through the walls and the floors and destroyed everything underneath, including wiring.”

While the restaurant reopened for lunch service in late August, Friedman said he has held off reopening for dinner as remediation continues. He said the bills now far exceed the original damage estimate of $50,000.

“I think the total in the end will be closer to 100 than the 50 we originally estimated,” he said.

Stern sent several letters The Daily Progress from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, where he was held until the afternoon of the recent hearing.

Stern initially claimed he was framed for the crime. He additionally expressed what he said in court, that he wasn’t terminated, and claimed that he was twice chosen “employee of the month.”

In his letters, Stern seemed most eager to disprove the allegation that he stole eggs from the restaurant.

“It’s an absurdity, as I am an egg farmer,” he wrote. “At the time I owned 24 ducks, 10 chickens, and would even go out of my way to bring my own personal eggs in to share.”

For Evan Best, an employee with whom Stern clashed, there’s some truth about what Stern alleges.

“He quit,” Best told The Daily Progress. “But he was definitely stealing things, particularly bags of barbecue. He chose to make it about the eggs.”

Both Best and Stern agree that Stern called Best “the egg pig,” and Stern says he chose the moniker because he felt that Best was policing his egg intake. In some social media postings, the term “egg pig” has wrongly been affixed to Stern.

“If you do ever write about me again I’m fine with being called egg hog,” Stern told The Daily Progress in a letter. “But an egg pig I will never be. I share my eggs.”

Circuit Judge Claude Worrell took Stern’s guilty plea under advisement and set a new hearing date to finalize the punishment on Nov. 26.