(I don't think she said 'genitalia'.) And a charge of forcible rape would usually bring with it a bail amount much hgher than $2,500, so it seems to be mainly a sexual assault offense.
Arizona man accused of assaulting woman on Hub flight
by Franci Richardson
Boston Herald
Tuesday, April 2, 2002
An Arizona man bringing his teenage son to visit Harvard University was arrested for allegedly putting his hand down the jeans of a woman sleeping next to him on a Delta flight, prosecutors said yesterday. [Woman was 22 years old, according to Boston Globe.]
"The victim . . . said she had awakened to find the subject's right hand down her jeans, under her panties, at least touching her (genitalia),'' prosecutor Michael Wallace said of Deepak T. Jahagirdar, 51, of Scottsdale.
Jahagirdar, a married father who works as a marketing manager for Hospice, denies the charges of rape, assault with intent to rape and interfering with an aircraft, his attorney said.
"He entered a plea of not guilty and he denies the charges,'' James W. Lawson, a Boston attorney, said at Jahagirdar's arraignment at East Boston District Court.
Jahagirdar had boarded Delta Flight 2100 Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, sitting two rows in front of his son, a source said.
Before the flight took off, the Saugus woman, whose name is being withheld because she is an alleged sexual abuse victim, asked the stewardess for a pillow and blanket and fell asleep.
The woman woke to find Jahagirdar's hand down her jeans and screamed before bolting to find a flight attendant, according to the police report.
"The victim stated she yelled at him and pulled this subject's right hand from her, pushing his hand towards his face,'' read the police report. "The victim went to her knees, informing the (flight attendant) . . . `You are not going to believe this, the man next to me in 12D put his hand down my pants and grabbed my
(genitalia).' ''
Four Secret Service agents who happened to be on the flight monitored Jahagirdar until the plane landed.
After Jahagirdar's arrest, police conducted tests on his hands while the victim, accompanied by her parents, went to Beverly Hospital for a rape exam.
Phone calls to Jahagirdar's Scottsdale home went unreturned.
However, a young man who said he was a high school sophomore and identified himself as Jahagirdar's son, defended him.
"My dad is one of the nicest men ever,'' he told the East Valley Tribune of Phoenix outside the family's suburban two-story stucco house.