Who is Joycelyn Bryant? Caterer sued for lacing food with cannabis with help of bride at Florida wedding
SEMINOLE, FLORIDA: An event caterer has been sued for $30,000 in damages by an elderly woman, who attended a wedding in Florida, for serving guests food laced with marijuana. The bride whose wedding she attended is also being sued for allegedly scheming with the caterer to infuse drugs into the food.
Joycelyn Bryant, the caterer, reportedly allowed harmful levels of cannabis in the food served at the wedding of bride Danya Svoboda. Both the bride and the caterer were criminally charged on April 18.
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Who is Joycelyn Bryant?
The owner of Joycelyn's Southern Kitchen, Joycelyn Bryant was taken into custody by Seminole County officials for delivering food containing marijuana at a wedding in Florida. According to the Seminole County Sheriff's Department, the 31-year-old caterer and 42-year-old bride were arrested in April on charges of violations of an anti-tampering law and delivery of cannabis.
Following reports of guests falling sick and feeling strange at the wedding on February 19 at a clubhouse in Longwood, a suburb of Orlando, county deputies and firefighters responded as per the law enforcement affidavits filed in the case as Svoboda and her husband Andrew Svoboda were questioned by the police.
Daily Mail reports that the 76-year-old woman Virginia Taylor-Svoboda, a relative of the bride who has sued Bryant and Danya, was among the guests affected by the serving of a cannabis-laced lasagna. Bryant's catering delivered pasta, desserts, and bread to 70 guests who were unaware that it contained drugs. Taylor alleges that she had no idea the food she had was drug-infused and has suffered "severe, permanent injuries".
"Bryant knew, or should have known, that allowing the food served [by Joycelyn’s Southern Kitchen] to be laced with marijuana was reasonably likely to cause injuries and damages to wedding guests," states the Taylor-Svoboda lawsuit, reports Daily Mail. After eating different sorts of food prepared by Bryant's catering, the guests soon felt sick, and around nine of the guest were taken to the hospital and some of them were taken out on stretchers by paramedics, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.
Daily Mail reportedly states that both Bryant and Svoboda were charged with serving marijuana, tampering with guests food, and misdemeanor culpable negligence after the dinner to which new civil charges on Bryant's negligence are added. The guests who were interviewed by the police said they were unware that the food had been tampered with or that it had cannabis. According to the warrant, every guest tested positive for cannabis. Bryant's employees, who were helping with the catering, fled to their vehicles and left the spot before the police arrived. The bride Svoboda nodded and "acted as if she'd given them a gift", said the guests when the group asked her if the servings were drug-laced.
Talking about the effects after taking the food, another guest Miranda Cady said "It all hit everyone pretty instantaneously. We were all fine, and then we were all not.", reports Daily Mail. Cady further added that "It was pretty traumatic - emotionally traumatic. I'm the type of person to walk into a room and everyone's my friend. To be violated this way from someone you like and trust is really hurtful. I didn't have an option or say. Even if people avoided things like the olive oil, it was still in the bread, in the pasta."
In the body-cam footage captured by the Seminole County Sheriff department officials, the bride who is stoned is seemingly suppressing a smile, staring at the deputies yet not answering to their questions. At the same time, her husband suggested to the police during the questioning that the wedding guests may have come bringing their own edible drugs.