dpA Newton man was convicted of abusive sexual contact for groping a 17-year-old girl through a seat on a flight from Puerto Rico to Boston in 2024, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Jonathan Alan Lefman faces up to two years in prison over the incident. He’s due to be sentenced in January after his conviction last week.
“The defendant repeatedly sexually abused a minor who was simply trying to travel safely aboard a commercial flight,” U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said in a statement. “No one should have to fear being sexually assaulted, whether in the air or on the ground.”
Prosecutors said Lefman was flying with his wife and children on Aug. 30, 2024, when he repeatedly reached his hand through the seat in front of him to touch the girl’s rear. In the final instance he allegedly touched her, the girl sat up and filmed cellphone video of a finger and hand sticking through her seat.
After the teen got off the plane, an adult family member who was in a different row reported Lefman to a supervisor on the plane and confronted the man, prosecutors have said.
Court document
Court document Still images from a video showing a hand protruding through a seat on a plane. The images are included in a criminal complaint against a Newton, Massachusetts, man accused of groping a 17-year-old girl on a flight from Puerto Rico to Boston in August 2024.
Lefman, accompanied by an attorney, was interiewed later that day by the FBI and state police, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. He told investigators he didn’t recall reaching under his seat or dropping anything during the flight, on which he listened to a podcast.
Asked if he stuck his fingers between seats on the plane, he said, “No. Not that I can recall,” and denied contact with the girl. Shown the video the teen took of the seat and asked if it showed his fingers, he said, “I don’t know,” the document said.
A Newton man was arrested on suspicion of making sexual contact with a teenage girl sitting in front of him by reaching through the seat on a flight from Puerto Rico to Boston in August.
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