Passenger moves to empty seat and gropes woman next to him on United flight, feds say

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A man moved to an empty seat on a United Airlines flight headed to New Jersey and groped the woman next to him, federal prosecutors said. Now, he’s going to prison.Ryan A. Manuella, 30, of Cheektowaga, New York, moved around the plane and sitting in several seats on the flight from Denver, Colorado to Newark on April 26, 2021, according to court documents.

Before sitting next to the woman, who was in a window seat, the man sat in her row in the aisle seat of a man who had gotten up to go to the bathroom, a criminal complaint filed in court says

Manuella is accused of going through the man’s bag and taking his glasses before the man returned and told him to leave, the criminal complaint says. Then, Manuella moved to the empty middle seat next to the woman, according to the criminal complaint.

At some point, he touched the woman’s “groin and inner thigh with his hand” without her consent, the criminal complaint says.

The woman, who told Manuella to “get away from her,” immediately alerted a flight attendant, who moved Manuella to a different seat until the plane landed in Newark, according to the criminal complaint.

Manuella was sentenced to two years in prison for the assault, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced in a Nov. 17 news release.

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