A rabbi has been charged with groping a passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Tel Aviv to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
According to a complaint filed by Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Janet Ambrisco, the rabbi, Gavriel Bidany, groped a female passenger twice while she was trying to sleep during a March 27 flight.
Bidany pleaded not guilty. His attorney Saul Bienenfeld said "Nothing happened. He was fast asleep, and a woman next to him started screaming." He added that Bidany did not touch the woman and was not permitted to change his seat to avoid being seated next to a woman.
Susan Elliott, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Delta said the airline does not comment on pending litigation.
The female passenger, who was not named in the complaint, was assigned to a middle seat on Delta flight 269 next to Bidany in the aisle seat. After falling asleep, the passenger awoke to find Bidany "had placed his hand under her blanket" and was groping her, according to the complaint. She jumped back and Bidany removed his hand, then she pulled her blanket back over herself.
Several minutes later, Bidany again reached under the female passenger's blanket, according to the complaint. In sum and substance, she then said, "What are you doing, stop touching me," and Bidany responded "It's a mistake, I'm asleep."
Bienenfeld said what Bidany actually said was, "You are mistaken, I am sleeping," and that it was incorrectly translated from Hebrew.
The female passenger went to tell the flight crew what happened, and one member of the crew described the passenger as "visibly shaken and frantic," according to the complaint.
Bidany has been released on bond under special conditions to allow him to return to Israel, where he lives, for Passover. According to Bienenfeld, Bidany will return to New York before his case is scheduled to go to trial May 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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