Passenger gropes 2 women, including mom taking care of baby, on JetBlue flight, feds say
A woman had leaned over to care for her baby aboard a red-eye JetBlue flight to Boston when she was groped by the passenger seated next to her, federal prosecutors said.
After Jairaj Singh Dhillon touched her thigh and groin area, she yelled out to her husband across the aisle saying “this man just groped me” about 30 minutes after the flight departed from Los Angeles on May 31, 2022, court documents show.
Dhillon, of Modesto, California, then groped a second woman who stood up from her aisle seat across from him to let the first woman’s husband out, an affidavit says.
Dhillon, 43, was sentenced to one year of probation on June 15 after pleading guilty to two counts of assault while in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced in a June 16 news release.
He will serve the first six months of probation confined to his home, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News contacted a federal public defender representing Dhillon for comment on June 20 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The flight
When Dhillon groped the first woman sitting next to him, she smacked his hand away before pressing the flight attendant call-button before calling for her husband, who stood up to stare at Dhillon, according to the affidavit.
Dhillon, who “seemed off,” went on and “reached out with both hands and simultaneously grabbed Victim 2’s groin and buttocks,” as she stepped into the aisle, the affidavit says.
She also smacked his hand away, and later told investigators he appeared “not all there,” according to the affidavit.
JetBlue crew members moved Dhillon to sit away from the women until the flight arrived in Boston, investigators said.
In an interview with law enforcement at Massachusetts State Police airport barracks, Dhillon said he didn’t remember groping either women, according to the affidavit.
He told authorities he took Ambien, a medication used to treat insomnia, about 15 to 20 minutes after the flight took off so he could sleep, the affidavit says.
Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo that “regardless of any drugs (he) may have taken, there is no diminishing what happened to the female victims who were subjected to Dhillon’s physical assault.”
They acknowledged the assaults were “undoubtedly concerning.”
However, prosecutors wrote he accepted responsibility in the case and given his lack of a criminal history besides a DUI in 2008, they argued a sentence of probation involving home confinement was appropriate, the sentencing memo shows.
Dhillon’s attorney wrote he is “profoundly remorseful” over what happened on the flight in a sentencing memo submitted on his behalf.
McClatchy News contacted JetBlue for comment on June 20 and was awaiting a response.
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