The woman swatted away the man’s hand, alerted a flight attendant and yelled for her husband, who was sitting across the aisle with the couple’s other young child.
“This man just groped me,” the woman said, pointing to the man sitting next to her, identified by prosecutors as Jairaj Singh Dhillon, 42, of Modesto, Calif. Around that time, another woman standing in the aisle said Dhillon had also groped her “groin and buttocks,” according to the affidavit.
Now, federal prosecutors have charged Dhillon with two counts of abusive sexual contact while in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Dhillon has made an initial appearance in court and is being held as he awaits a hearing on Thursday, prosecutors said in a news release.
It was not immediately clear whether Dhillon has an attorney.
According to the affidavit, Dhillon told investigators that he had no memory of touching the women and that any contact he may have had with them was unintentional.
About 15 or 20 minutes into the flight, Dhillon said, he took an Ambien sleeping pill. He said he would not have touched the mother “because of his lack of attraction” to her, the affidavit states.
Dhillon told investigators he was a truck driver flying to pick up a trailer-tractor, which he planned to drive back to California. He knew the mother sitting next to him was with her husband and their other child, he told investigators, and he had offered to switch seats with her so the…
