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 Travel & Outdoors | April 2007 
Plea Bargain Ends Pilot's Groping Case
 Denise Nix - dailybreeze.com
| What should you do if an airport security person insists on feeling your breasts. Is this is joke? Or do passengers actually have to go along with this intrusion? Here are five things you can do to make a difference.
1) If you believe you have been treated in a discriminatory manner, don't bother reporting it to airport authorities - report it to the media. The TSA's so-called "resolution line" (866-289-9673) is just a recording that sends you to a website.
2) Make sure your bags are always in your sight. If a screener wants to move you to a side area or a private room and separate you from your hand luggage, politely insist that your handcarries must go where you go. They will comply.
3) Be polite. No matter how a screener behaves, control yourself and do not raise your voice as this could send you straight to jail.
4) If you feel tense at security, say to the screener: I appreciate that you are checking all the passengers thoroughly because I am also very concerned with safety.
5) For updates on this ongoing campaign for dignity at airport security, click HERE. |
A Mexican airline pilot who was accused of groping boutique clerks in two South Bay cities pleaded no contest Monday to a misdemeanor disturbing the peace charge and was ordered to stay away from one of the women.
The plea deal for Ernesto Coloma, who will serve no time in jail, followed a trial that ended March 1 when a jury acquitted him of charges that he inappropriately touched a Manhattan Beach store employee and deadlocked in favor of not guilty for similar allegations against an El Segundo clerk.
Coloma, 39, of Mexico City testified during the trial that he may have inadvertently touched the women after asking them to try on clothes he was considering for his wife. He said he wanted to feel the fabrics.
Al West, Coloma's attorney, said outside court that it is "frustrating" that his client had to take a plea deal because he is innocent. However, it wasn't worth the risk of jail time, his job as captain of an Aerolitoral plane or the toll on his emotions to risk another trial, West said.
Prosecutors could have tried him again on the two counts left unresolved after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Antonio Barreto Jr. declared a mistrial.
Deputy District Attorney Elena Camaras said her office believed there was enough evidence against Coloma when they went to trial. But, based on the jury's verdict, the plea seemed like the best decision, she added.
Each count carried a possible six-month jail sentence.
A clerk at Flip Flop in Manhattan Beach accused Coloma of touching her chest on Dec. 7, 2005, after he asked her to try on a dress. She picked Coloma out of police photos, a live lineup and in court as her assailant, but her initial description to police did not match him.
A flight attendant testified she was with Coloma at the Manhattan Village mall at the time of the incident.
An employee at D'Arte in El Segundo testified Coloma came into the store the next day and, after asking her to try on a cocktail dress, put his fingers inside the garment and ran them up and down her breasts. She said he also put his hands on her chest and pushed her. In the agreement, Coloma was ordered to stay away from the El Segundo clerk.
The jury hung 9-3 in favor of not guilty for sexual battery related to the alleged dress incident in El Segundo. They acquitted him of sexual battery for the push allegation, but hung 10-2 in his favor on a lesser charge of simple battery.
denise.nix@dailybreeze.com |
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