Prabhu Ramamoorthy convicted of sexually assaulting female passenger on Spirit Airlines flight while his wife sat next to him unawares.
A federal jury has convicted a Detroit-area man of sexually assaulting a 22 year old woman as she slept on an overnight flight from Las Vegas to Detroit.
Convicted according to U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider in a Thursday press release was Rochester Hills man, Prabhu Ramamoorthy, a 35 year old year old Indian national.
In his statement, Schneider wrote Ramamoorthy a former IT project manager at a Detroit area technology company just on two years, facing the possibility of life in prison upon sentencing on Dec. 12. If released, Schneider says Ramamoorthy will be deported to India. The defendant it was noted was in the U.S. on a work visa.
Offered Schneider, ‘We will not tolerate the behavior of anyone who takes advantage of victims who are in a vulnerable position, and we are glad the jury agreed,’
Adding, ‘We appreciate the victim in this case for her courage to speak out’.
The Detroit News reported Schneider saying the jury deliberating about 3½ hours before returning the verdict following a five-day trial.
Prabhu Ramamoorthy convicted: ‘I might have undone her bra.’
The assault occurred, January 3, 2018 circa 5.30 am while the victim was sitting in a window seat, about 40 minutes before landing, with the assault only stopping upon the woman waking upon sensing something happening to her body.
The Washington Post reported the female victim sitting in a window seat next to the male passenger during a Spirit Airlines flight when she woke up to find her pants and shirt unbuttoned, and the man’s hand inside her pants.
The victim claimed Ramamoorthy shoving his fingers in her genitals and ‘vigorously’ moving them, finally stopping when she woke up, according to a federal complaint obtained by the Detroit Free Press.
All of the above is alleged to have occurred while Ramamoorthy’s wife sat to his other side, purportedly unaware as to what her husband had been up to. At the time of the accusations, the wife said her husband told her the female passenger falling asleep on his knees.
Upon the victim complaining to flight attendants, Ramamoorthy was taken into custody after the plane landed.
The husband later told an FBI agent that he ‘might have’ undone the victim’s bra while playing with it, cupped her clothed breast, partly unzipped her pants, and put his finger in her pants, the complaint said.
He also claimed he had tried to put his finger in the woman’s private parts but was unsuccessful, according to the complaint.
Before speaking with the agent, Ramamoorthy made a written statement claiming that he was in a deep sleep and the woman falling asleep on his knees. He claimed he wasn’t sure ‘where [he] kept [his] hand on her.’
Prabhu Ramamoorthy convicted: Did his wife know and was simply trying to cover up for her husband?
Responding to the fact that Ramamoorthy’s wife had been siting next to her husband at the time of the assault, federal prosecutor Amanda Jawad told the Washington Post:
‘It seems that she’s either colluding with the defendant to cover up his actions or she’s completely oblivious to what he did,’
Adding, ‘What makes this offense particularly egregious and the defendant even more of a danger to the community is the fact that it took place on an airplane. He was brazen enough to do this basically in public, next to his wife where anyone could have seen him.’
To date it remains unclear why the male passenger sexually assaulted his young victim and what may have informed the Indian national his purported actions were permissible….
Indian man who molested sleeping woman (while wife watched) on Spirit Airlines sentenced 9 years
Spirit Airlines passenger sexually assaults sleeping woman (with wife unaware).
