Dad flying with family gropes teen sitting in front of him on flight to Boston, feds say
A man flying with his family repeatedly groped a teenage girl sitting in front of him by reaching in between the cushion and back of her plane seat, according to federal prosecutors.
She filmed “the last occasion when he allegedly touched or attempted to touch her buttocks” on the JetBlue flight from Puerto Rico to Boston on Aug. 30, prosecutors said.
Still images from the video taken on the 17-year-old’s cellphone show his fingers “protruding” into her seat, an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit.
The man, 46, of Newton, Massachusetts, is charged with one count of abusive sexual contact while in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a Feb. 7 news release.
He was arrested Feb. 7, court records show.
His defense attorney, Paul Cirel, told McClatchy News in a provided statement on Feb. 10 that his client “is innocent of these allegations.”
“This is a flight in which he was traveling – and sitting with – his wife and four children throughout its duration,” Cirel said. “We look forward to his full exoneration in court.”
McClatchy News is not identifying the man to protect the identity of his children.
After the 17-year-old girl took the video of the man’s hand between her seat, she filmed him getting off the plane at Boston Logan International Airport, according to prosecutors. Both videos were shared with law enforcement.
In a written statement to Massachusetts State Police, the girl wrote he “touched me without my permission” on the flight, the affidavit says.
“(A)t first I thought he was stretching because we all get tired,” the girl recalled.
Then she wrote that she “started to realize that he was really touching me,” according to the affidavit.
The teen’s family member, who was sitting in a different row on the flight, reported the man to a JetBlue supervisor and confronted him and his wife after they got off the plane, the affidavit says.
She accused him of groping the teen, showed the couple the video of his hand, and told his “wife that she should be concerned about the man’s behavior as she has children,” according to the affidavit.
The family member told authorities that the man apologized and said he was stretching, the affidavit says.
That day, the man agreed to speak with the FBI and Massachusetts State Police investigators, with his attorney there, according to the affidavit.
“When shown the video of the fingers, and asked directly, ‘So those hands and those fingers that we saw … what are you telling ... those are not your fingers?’ he responded, ‘I . . . I don’t know. I don’t know,’” the affidavit says.
The man made his first appearance in Boston federal court on Feb. 7, court records show.
He was released on certain conditions, according to a court order.
The conditions include that his travel is restricted to the U.S. unless he gets special permission to travel internationally and that he’s required to get medical or psychiatric treatment, the order shows.
If he’s convicted on one count of abusive sexual contact while in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the U.S., he could face up to two years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“We have zero tolerance for the behavior alleged in this incident and immediately notified law enforcement in Boston,” a JetBlue spokesperson said in a statement to McClatchy News on Feb. 10. “We continue to assist and cooperate fully with authorities in this case.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Dad flying with family gropes teen sitting in front of him on flight to Boston, feds say."
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