SEATAC, Wash. — The Department of Justice said a man sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl during a flight to Seattle.
Investigators say it happened on a Delta Airlines flight from North Carolina on Sunday night.
The teen was sitting next to a man named Jack Roberson, who investigators say started groping the girl while she slept.
The teen told her guardian, who reported it to a flight attendant. Roberson was moved away from the teen and then arrested when the plane landed.
On Tuesday we learned that Roberson had eight cocktails before boarding and then two double vodka tonics on the plane, according to federal investigators.
Roberson is now being held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated report. According to the DOJ, last week, a 41-year-old Chief Warrant Officer in the Army was indicted for two counts of the same charge, abusive sexual contact, for allegedly touching two teenage girls on board an Alaska flight.
That charge has a penalty of two years in prison and a quarter-million dollar fine.