Airline Passenger Arrested For Groping Woman Told Police Trump ‘Says It’s OK’

A Southwest Airlines passenger arrested for groping a woman during a flight told police officers “the president of the United States says it’s OK to grab women by their private parts,” FBI stated in a criminal complaint filed Monday.

The statement could likely be referring to President Donald Trump’s 2005 audio recording in which he said he could grab women’s private parts because he was a celebrity.

According to the complaint, the accused, Bruce Michael Alexander, made “abusive sexual contact” with a female passenger on a flight from Texas to New Mexico “by touching the passenger’s breast, without their permission.”

The female passenger who was the victim said she was seated in the window seat, in the row in front of Alexander. Approximately 20 minutes into the flight, she felt her clothes move “and a touching of fingers on her right side at and around her ‘bra line.’”

Approximately 30 minutes after that, she felt Alexander grab the back of her arm, squeezing above the elbow before slowly groping her right side. She said Alexander touched her “no less than three times,” recalling that she saw “a hand that had thick fingers, were hairy and dirty fingernails.”

After she felt the last touch, she rose from the seat and told Alexander that he needed to stop. She then requested a crewmember to change her seat to another section of the aircraft, which was done.

The victim demonstrated the area that was touched to the officials.

“In my training and experience, victims of sexual assault and similar crimes have difficulty in saying, in words, the exact part of themselves that were touched. My training has also taught me that people rarely remember inconsequential details unless the details are relevant or traumatic,” FBI special agent Michael Hopkins stated in the complaint.

In a statement to Huffington Post, the airlines said that in light of the incident, it is “continuously reviewing and updating” the training of staff “as necessary.”

The accused appeared before a federal court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Monday. He will remain in federal custody until preliminary and detention hearing, scheduled for Tuesday. He could face a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if found guilty.

In an unrelated incident in January 2018, a man was arrested in Michigan for sexually abusing a female co-passenger on a flight while she was sleeping. The victim claimed she woke up to find her pants and shirt unbuttoned and the man's hand inside her pants. The incident took place in presence of the man's wife who was seated beside him. She immediately pushed past the man and his wife and informed the attendants. The man was taken into custody as soon as the flight landed. He was convicted of the crime in August.