UConn Mac ‘n’ Cheese Student From Long Island Pleads Guilty, Pays Fine

By Chris Dehnel

VERNON, CT — The final tab for UConn's "Mac and Cheese Boy" from Long Island wound up being $100, but with a guilty plea to one charge on Monday, Luke Gatti bused his meal ticket for a clean slate into the trash.

Gatti is the 20-year-old Bayville resident who gained internet infamy for a drunken tirade over the University of Connecticut's gourmet macaroni and cheese last fall. On Monday, he entered a guilty plea to one of his charges —second-degree breach of peace —and paid the $100 fine at Rockville Superior Court, a clerk said.

Though the plea effectively forfeited a form of special probation, the court now deems his case in Connecticut closed, a clerk at the courthouse said.

In June, Gatti was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer in Palm Beach, FL, according to the police department's web site. The clerk in Rockville said his plea was strictly a Connecticut matter.

Gatti was arrested last Oct. 4 for second-degree breach of peace and first-degree criminal trespass, according to a UConn arrest report.

UConn police said an intoxicated Gatti walked into the Student Union at night, looking for the gourmet jalapeno macaroni and cheese, a popular menu item at the food court.

Gatti was asked to leave because of his drunkenness and wound up in a verbal and physical confrontation with a manager, police said. Police intervened and arrested him, according to an arrest report.

The tirade and subsequent scuffle was captured on video and went internationally viral on YouTube. He was dubbed "Mac and Cheese Boy" around UConn campus, particularly on the social media platform Yik Yak.

Gatti also apologized in a YouTube video. Gatti received a form of special probation for the UConn case, according to a clerk at Rockville Superior Court. Gatti left UConn following the mac and cheese incident.

Gatti was also arrested last September in Amherst, MA, at an alternation at a party, according to police records.

Photo Credit: Gatti's booking mug shot furnished by UConn police.