YuA Georgia doctor has been accused of touching the crotch of a woman sitting next to him on a Delta Airlines flight. The guy was off to Maine to propose to his girlfriend.
The incident occurred on March 17 on a flight from Atlanta to Portland, according to a criminal complaint received by the New York Post on Wednesday.
The woman said the suspect, Jake Namgyek Cho, a nephrologist, “constantly leaned into his seat area during the flight while appearing to be asleep.”
The complaint indicates that the man placed his hand on the woman’s thigh and buttocks while touching her feet with his own.
During some of the disturbances, he appears to have had a “spasm”, reaching into the victim’s groin and touching his “genitals outside his pants”.
The woman reportedly responded, prompting the doctor to remove his hand from the woman’s body.
“The passenger appeared to be asleep or pretended to be asleep and did not touch (the woman) after he retracted his hand,” the lawsuit stated.
Two days later, he was questioned by an FBI agent and a federal aviation official at a Portland airport before his return flight to Atlanta, who said he had flown to Maine to propose to his girlfriend.
In addition to denying the allegations, he said he was available to take a polygraph test, which he underwent at the FBI office in Portland on April 1.
After the test, Shaw ends up admitting what he did, but maintains that his actions were not sexual.
Once on board, the man said in a written statement, he began to “relax” and stretch his legs.
“At one point, she touched my left foot with her right foot and kept in touch until I fell asleep,” he wrote, according to the North American newspaper.
“When I woke up I was leaning to my left and facing her. At some point I saw her reaching out and grabbing her right thigh with my hand,” he added. “I only intended to press on her upper right thigh and never intended to touch her thigh. Because I was without glasses and it was dark, my hand slipped from her thigh to her thighs,” he said.
After the woman “immediately” exclaimed “loudly,” the man is said to have withdrawn his hand, sitting up straight.
“I was so embarrassed and didn’t know what to do, so I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep for the rest of the flight,” he said.
The FBI agent wrote that there was sufficient probable cause to believe that Cho “knowingly engaged in abusive sexual contact” with the woman.
If convicted, the doctor could serve up to two years in prison.
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