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A federal court was kind towards a Brooklyn man guilty of fondling a sleeping woman on an international trip to JFK Airport.
Federal court documents indicate that 36-year-old Daniel Katz was sentenced last week to one year of probation, including three months of unmonitored home confinement, and 75 hours of community service for the creepy 2018 sky-high molestation of the 25-year-old woman.
Federal prosecutors had urged US District Judge Frederic Block to sentence Katz to up to 21 months in prison following his conviction in June 2021 on charges of abusive sexual contact and misdemeanor assault, but the judge instead gave the convicted individual a slap on the wrist.
Katz, who volunteered at a children’s summer camp in upstate New York and twice taught in South Korea, must register as a sexual offender, decided Block on Friday.
Daniel Katz was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman on board Etihad Airways Flight 103.
The victim, described as “Gina” in court documents, was seated next to Katz on Etihad Airways Flight 103 from Abu Dhabi to New York on February 23, 2018.
According to the records, she informed investigators that after she fell asleep, Katz slid his hand down her pants and began fondling her while she was seated.
Gina said that she awoke feeling “terrified” and “violated” and immediately burst into tears before falling back asleep.
According to court documents, she told the jurors, “I had absolutely no intention of engaging in any physical, mainly sexual, action with him.” “It was something that was imposed upon me, and I had no control over the experience that I had.
“Therefore, I would never have wanted to engage in such a circumstance with a stranger on an aircraft or in a public area,” she stated.
Katz was confronted by airline staff and asserted that the attack was voluntary.
“My neighbor and I proceeded to cuddle, which eventually led to us holding hands and my caressing her vagina,” he stated in a statement he composed during the flight.
In 2018, Daniel Katz of Brooklyn was found guilty of fondling a woman on an international flight that landed at JFK Airport.
“She appeared to be conscious and to be enjoying our conversation,” he claimed. “After some time had gone, I began to second-guess my behavior, considering we had just met and were on an airplane. She appeared disturbed while speaking with her buddy hours later, so I inquired if she was okay and at ease with what had occurred, and she responded, “Yes.”
Katz even claimed that his victim initiated the altercation.
But Gina refuted his allegations and said she attempted to contact the airline multiple times following the flight, before finally calling the NYPD rape hotline on March 2, 2018.
The police reported the case to the FBI, which, following an investigation, indicted Katz.
He was tried and sentenced on Friday, 24 June 2021.
»rooklyn man avoids prison sentence after groping a woman on a JFK aircraft«