Man Who Groped Sleeping Passenger on Newark Flight Sentenced In Essex County

A Louisiana man who sexually touched a sleeping woman on a flight to Newark Airport has been sentenced to eight months in prison for abusive sexual contact.

Devender Singh, 62, an Indian national who currently lives in Baton Rouge, was sentenced by Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark federal court today.

Singh will also serve two years of supervised release following his jail sentence, and must register as a sex offender.

“Singh was seated next to a woman who occupied a window seat on a United Airlines flight from Houston to Newark,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman stated in a press release today. “While the plane was in the air, the woman fell asleep. She awoke to find Singh kissing her face with his hand inside her shirt.”

According to court documents, after the woman pushed Singh off of her and told him to “get away,” she went to the back of the plane and told a flight crew member what had happened, asking that the police be present when the plane landed.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford, and the Port Authority Police Department, under the direction of Superintendent Michael A. Fedorko, with the investigation.

Sadly, this is not the first sexual assault to occur on a flight bound for Newark Airport recently. In August, Eun Jong Lee, 47, of Ithaca, NY was arrested when his plane from Tokyo landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, where he confessed to groping a sleeping passenger.

Lee admitted to groping the women during an interview with FBI agents, NJ.com reported. Like Singh, Lee was charged with abusive sexual contact. He could face up to two years in prison for his crime.

The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over all sexual abuse cases that occur on aircraft in flight in the United States.

In July, following an NBC investigation into sexual assaults on aircrafts, Congressman Eleanor Homes Norton (D-DC) announced a bill that requires reporting and data collection on sexual assaults on airlines.

“Protecting Airline Passengers from Sexual Assaults Act of 2014” received bipartisan support when it was introduced in March, and a similar bill by Congressman Crawford (R-AR) was introduced in April.

“I introduced my bill after learning about a surge in sexual assaults aboard airplanes,” Norton expressed on her web page. “It is impossible for us to deal with sexual assaults on passenger aircraft because there are zero reporting requirements, and therefore zero data for us to eliminate sexual assault during air travel.”