Cake-Kicking Bloomfield Township Woman Could Go To Jail

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI — An unhappy Bloomfield Township woman who witnesses said drop-kicked her son’s birthday cake pleaded no-contest to disorderly conduct last week and could face jail time when she’s sentenced Tuesday in 48th District Court.

Tricia Kortes, 46, was charged in June after a bizarre incident at the Kroger store in Bloomfield Township.

Police said she was unimpressed with the decorating superpowers on a “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” cake she’d ordered for her son’s birthday party in June and attempted to go behind the bakery counter to fix it.

When employees stopped Kortes, her temper flared and the cake flew, police said.

“This infuriated the woman, causing her to take the cake to the front of the counter and ‘drop kick’ it,” Bloomfield police Det. Sgt. John Weise said at the time. “The action caused pieces of cake and frosting to be strewn about the bakery section of the store. The woman quickly left the store, kicking over a wet floor sign on her way out.”

• ‘Infuriated’ Customer ‘Drop Kicks’ Son’s Birthday Cake: Police

Kortes said the cake slipped out of her hands and that she hadn't kicked it, but witnesses told police she unleashed a profanity-laced spiel about how her 7-year-old’s birthday had been ruined, and then stomped on the cake after it hit the floor.

A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt, but is treated as such in sentencing. Judge Kim Small could impose a sentence of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, The Birmingham Eccentric reported.

Kortes has had trouble controlling her temper before, according to media reports.

Just days before the alleged June 11 meltdown at the Kroger store, a judge in Troy had required her to attend anger management classes and fined her $500 after she pleaded no-contest to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a fight with a co-worker in Troy. In that incident, she was accused of shoving and hitting her colleague with a cellphone.

WXYZ-TV reported that Kortes was placed on probation for a 2003 assault charge in King County, Washington.

Her attorney, Gerald Gleeson, declined to talk about the Troy and Washington state incidents, but told the TV station that the cake-kicking incident had been “blown out of proportion” and that his client was seeking counseling.

Image: This was not the actual cake a Bloomfield Township woman is accused of drop kicking. (Photo by James G via Flickr / licensed by Creative Commons)