Hatboro Woman Gets Probation, Community Service for Racist Tirade Against Pizza Shop Owner

Tony Di Domizio | North Penn Now•

A Hatboro woman who was exposed as a bigot on cell phone video during a racially-fueled tirade against a pizza shop owner and threatened to "get him the f*** out of town” last February received 90 days probation and eight hours of community service after pleading guilty to a summary harassment charge in Montgomery County court, according to The Reporter.

As part of a plea agreement, the more serious misdemeanor ethnic intimidation charge was thrown out against Rita Frances Bellew, 56, of the 100 block of East Moreland Avenue, per the report.

Bellew was sentenced by Judge Risa Vetri Ferman recently, who ordered Bellew to stay away from the restaurant and to write a letter of apology to the owners and staff of Amy’s Family Pizzeria on the 300 block of South York Road in Hatboro, per the report.

Bellew was denied a transfer of her case to the county Behavioral Health Court, according to the report. The court engages with people suffering from serious mental health problems as they move through the court system. Bellew’s psychological evaluation indicated no severe mental illness, per reports.

On Feb. 23, 2023, a TikTok video hit close to five million views on X, formerly Twitter, which showed Bellew spewing racist vitriol and berating Latino business owner Omar Quiñonez and his staff, all because she disliked a Spanish-language program on the pizza shop’s TV.

As of Thursday, the video on X has 6.9 million views, 5,079 reposts, 3,473 comments, and almost 17,000 likes.

According to the video, Bellew called Quiñonez a "Mexican” and "little guy.” Bellew also accused the pizzeria employee of recording her because she was white.

"They’re calling me a racist because I am white,” Bellew said in the video.

"No, we’re calling you a racist because you’re a racist,” the worker said.

After police arrived on the scene at 5:55 p.m. for a disturbance call and handled the situation, Hatboro Police Officer Brett Paul handed Bellew back her money and told her she was not welcome at the pizzeria again.

"I’m too damn white,” she responded, per the affidavit.

Hatboro Police Department said Bellew was triggered by the Spanish broadcast.

"Police de-escalated the disturbance involving Bellew and learned that an employee video recorded Bellew prior to police arriving. The video shows Bellew berating the staff of the restaurant with a profane, racially fueled tirade,” police said in a press release.

It was only after she was charged with the summons that Bellew apologized for her behavior and insisted she was not a racist.

Bellew told WHYY last year that she was horrified and ashamed by how she acted at the pizzeria. She was being harassed and threatened in public, she told WHYY.

"I’m very, very sorry,” she told WHYY News. "I wanted to go down there and apologize, but I was told that wasn’t a good idea.”

Bellew told WHYY News she was "emotionally unstable” and had a lot on her mind with recent breast cancer diagnoses and taking care of her sick father.

"It came out sideways and I took it out on innocent people that didn’t deserve it at all,” she told WHYY. "I deserve to be in trouble for this … What I did was very wrong, and I don’t want people to think that it’s okay.”

In the wake of the incident, Amy’s Family Pizzeria’s business surged, and was inundated with orders and phone calls of support from all over the world.

Quiñonez told WHYY last year that he had calls from Germany, Poland, Spain, and South America. The Tuesday after the incident, the pizzeria had to close up to catch up on its more than 400 orders.