A passenger kept touching a woman’s thigh on a flight from San Diego to Seattle and grabbed her buttocks as she stood up to let another passenger exit the row, federal prosecutors said.
Now, the FBI has found and arrested the man more than seven months after the Alaska Airlines flight landed on June 20, 2023, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Desmond D. Bostick, 25, of Federal Way, Washington, is accused of using a blanket he brought on the flight to hide himself repeatedly groping the woman seated next to him in the middle seat, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington said in a Feb. 9 news release.
His court-appointed federal public defender, Dennis Carroll, declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Feb. 13.
After the plane arrived in Seattle, the woman reported to the flight crew that Bostick had touched her, and authorities launched an investigation, prosecutors said.
However, law enforcement couldn’t find Bostick after he left the airport that day, according to prosecutors.
In September, Bostick was indicted on a charge of abusive sexual contact aboard the aircraft as his whereabouts remained unknown, prosecutors said.
He “did knowingly and intentionally engage in sexual contact with (the woman), that is, touch (her) buttocks, without (her) permission and with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, and arouse and gratify the sexual desire of any person,” an indictment filed Sept. 27 says.
On Feb. 9, Bostick was arrested, according to prosecutors, who didn’t specify the location of his arrest.
He “is no longer allowed to travel on Alaska or Horizon,” an Alaska Airlines spokesperson told McClatchy News on Feb. 13.
Horizon Air is a subsidiary of the Alaska Air Group, the parent organization of Alaska Airlines.
The FBI continues to investigate the case with the Port of Seattle Police, according to the attorney’s office.