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A Texas man is accused of masturbating openly while groping at the dumbstruck passenger sitting next to him aboard an American Airlines flight from Boston to Washington, D.C., later denying any wrongdoing and insisting to police that he had merely been “stretching his arms.”
Aerospace executive Darrell Ray Seale, 56, continued to touch his seatmate’s crotch and leg even after the man demanded he stop, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Independent.
In an email on Thursday, Seale’s court-appointed lawyer, Todd Richman, declined to comment on the allegations.
Seale, who was released Tuesday on a personal recognizance bond following his June 8 arrest on one count of abusive sexual contact, was unable to be reached.
Last year, the FBI, which has jurisdiction over in-flight crimes, investigated 104 cases involving allegations of sexual assault aboard aircraft. The actual number of incidents could in fact be higher, since a significant portion do not get passed along to law enforcement, according to the bureau.
On June 6, Seale boarded American Airlines flight 4349 at Boston Logan International Airport, bound for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, states the affidavit, which was filed Monday in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court and has not been previously reported.
After the 110-minute flight got underway, Seale, who was in a window seat, began “masturbating through his shorts, rubbing his penis,” the affidavit goes on, citing an interview the alleged victim gave to FBI agents.
“Seale then lowered his tray table and then began touching [his seatmate’s] penis over his pants,” the affidavit contends. “[The seatmate] told him to stop by raising his hand, but Seale continued to touch [him] by putting his fingers through the hole in [the man’s] pants and rubbing [his] leg.”
Another passenger sitting across the aisle saw Seale touch the man’s left thigh, put his hand on his crotch, and “observed him fondle [his] penis,” the affidavit continues. It says the passenger across the aisle then watched Seale’s seatmate “‘raise [his] right hand’ towards Seale to ‘make the universal ‘stop’ sign.’”
Seale initially moved his hand away, according to the affidavit. But, it says he soon continued molesting the man, prompting the passenger across the aisle to intervene. They typed a message on their phone, reading, “Are you OK?” and showed it to Seale’s seatmate, who shook his head “no,” the affidavit states.
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When Seale subsequently got up to use the restroom, the target of his unwanted affections informed a flight attendant about what had happened and was promptly seated elsewhere for the remainder of the trip, the affidavit says.
When the flight landed in D.C., airport police escorted Seale off the plane, according to the affidavit. Officers called in the FBI, and agents arrived to question the suspect.
He “acknowledged sitting next to” the alleged victim, and admitted to “possibly making contact with him while stretching his arms,” the affidavit states. At the same time, it says Seale “denied ever touching him in a sexual way and denied ever exposing his own genitalia.”
But, Seale’s story didn’t line up with the narratives provided by his seatmate and the passenger across the aisle, and Seale was arrested two days later as he prepared to board a departing flight from Reagan National.
“He again denied that he touched [his seatmate] in any sexual way, but acknowledged that he observed [him] put up his hand in the ‘stop’ signal,” the affidavit states. “Seale said he believed [the man] was telling him to stop touching him while stretching.”
In March, American Airlines permanently banned a serial harasser following his third accusation of in-flight sexual misconduct. That same month, a New York City fashion executive filed a lawsuit against American, claiming the passenger sitting next to her masturbated for a full hour aboard a flight to Milan but that the cabin crew did nothing to stop him. Last year, a New Jersey woman sued the carrier over claims she was sexually assaulted by a fellow traveler on a night flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Newark.
Seale is now living under his brother-in-law’s supervision in Trophy Club, Texas, according to a June 10 order setting the conditions of his release. He is prohibited from leaving the Eastern District of Texas except to appear in court, barred from possessing any weapons and is not allowed to board any commercial flights without permission from the court.
If convicted, Seale faces up to two years in prison.
American Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
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