JetBlue Passenger Charged With Putting Hand Under Sleeping Woman’s Skirt

A female passenger on a JetBlue flight from San Francisco To New York City says the man sitting next to her made feeble attempts to flirt with her before inappropriately putting his hand under her skirt while she slept. The man’s defense isn’t exactly convincing.

The Smoking Gun has obtained a probable cause affidavit related to the incident, which actually occurred during an April 2012 flight.

In the document, the woman says that her alleged groper, who was traveling with his 12-year-old son, was trying to chat her up before the plane ever took off, and that “conversations throughout the flight all turned to a sexual nature.”

She was seated on the aisle and claims that she once volunteered to get something for the male passenger from the overhead bin so that he wouldn’t have to climb over her to get to his belongings. His response, according to the affidavit was to say, “I’d really like to climb all over you.”

The man admits on the record to having had one drink before takeoff and a couple more while in the air.

The female passenger eventually took something to get to sleep, but about 40 minutes before touching down in NYC, she says she awoke to find the man’s hand under her skirt and massaging her thigh.

By way of defending himself, the man allegedly said, “It’s not like I molested you. It’s not like I stuck my finger in your p**sy or grabbed your t*ts.” According to the affidavit, he admitted to authorities that he could have said those words.

Making things even more uncomfortable, the woman says he then told her, “I wouldn’t mind a massage right now.”

She says she left her seat, which allegedly resulted in the man asking her, “What’s the matter you don’t trust me anymore?”

The woman says she only sat back down right before the plane landed at JFK.

Several weeks after the incident, Port Authority Police investigators interviewed the man, who says he thought the woman was flirting with him. He claims she had told him he was attractive and a good dad. He believed the two had developed a “bond” and claims he didn’t think she would mind him putting his hand on her thigh, though he maintained that he never put his hand under her skirt.

He has been charged with simple assault.

This is the second grope-related story involving JetBlue this year. In August, we told you about a man caught accosting a pregnant woman on board a flight from L.A. to New York. That flight had to land in Denver after the crew got word of the groping.

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