SEATTLE — A Washington state man pleaded guilty on Thursday to groping a woman during an Alaska Airlines flight from San Diego to Seattle last year.
Desmond Bostick, 25, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to assault, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington said in a news release.
While seated in the last row of the plane during the flight on June 20, 2023, Bostick repeatedly touched the thigh of a woman in the middle seat next to him, prosecutors said. He also grabbed her buttocks twice when she stood up to let a passenger in the window seat exit and reenter the row.
After the plane landed, the woman reported his actions to the flight crew and law enforcement began investigating. Bostick, by that time, had left the airport and prosecutors said his location was unknown.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment in the case last September and Bostick was located and arrested by the FBI on Feb. 9. Bostick admitted as part of the plea agreement that he touched the woman with sexual motivation, prosecutors said.
Attorneys will recommend a 9-month prison term when he is sentenced in July.
From 2019 to 2021 there was a 25% increase in investigations of sexual misconduct on planes, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2018, there were 27 sexual misconduct investigations. In 2022, that number rose to 90 investigations, and so far this year there have been 62 investigations.
“I want to make this abundantly clear. Sexual assault on airplanes is a federal crime. The FBI along with our partners will investigate these crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman in August 2023. “And I also want to make this also clear. The United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington can and will prosecute these crimes. We will support our victims and survivors.”
Gorman said close quarters and being isolated on a plane create unique circumstances that people take advantage of. The majority of misconduct occurs while passengers are sleeping, involves drugs and alcohol, and nearly a quarter of reported victims are minors.
“Victims are not responsible for what happened to them,” said Mary Ellen Stone, CEO of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center in August 2023. “We want to make sure that people understand that it is not the victim’s fault.”
