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United Pilot Paid $300K after Indecent Exposure Arrest
Captain Collins was the UA IAD LEC Chair (head pilot union representative for the United Airlines Dulles base) when he was arrested. He was a front runner to be the new head of ALPA National.
Pilot arrested for being naked at his hotel room window paid $300,000 by city of Denver "Though the city of Denver may deny liability, it has now paid a price for what happened on Sept. 20, 2018," the man's attorney said. Ryan Luby, a spokesman for the City Attorney's Office, said the $300,000 payment comes from an insurance policy Denver has at the airport.Nov. 12, 2019, 1:49 PM EST / Updated Nov. 12, 2019, 6:05 PM EST By Janelle Griffith The city of Denver has agreed to pay $300,000 to a United Airlines pilot who was arrested on an indecent exposure charge that was later dismissed by a judge. Andrew Collins' attorney, Craig Silverman, announced the settlement on Monday.Collins, who served in the United States Air Force, was arrested on Sept. 20, 2018 by Denver police and accused of indecent exposure for standing naked in front of his 10th-floor hotel window overlooking the Denver International Airport terminal. Collins spent days in the Denver city jail after his arrest. "We agreed on that figure in mediation on Friday," Luby told NBC News. NBC News was referred by the Denver Police Department to a spokeswoman for Denver International Airport, who said the settlement was paid as part of the airport’s liability insurance because the incident took place on its property. She declined to comment further. Silverman told NBC News Tuesday his client was unaware he could be seen when he opened the curtains of his hotel room in the late morning that September day. Collins, of Leesburg, Virginia, was naked and about to shower when he received a phone call, according to Silverman. "Captain Collins walked around his room and took in the view as he was absorbed in the 24-minute phone call," Silverman wrote in a notice of claim dated March 15, 2019. After the call ended, Collins was going to shower when he was alarmed by a Denver police officer loudly banging on his door and ordering him to open it. The officer told Collins he would enter with or without permission, the notice of claim states. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c86b321a40.jpg Photo credit: Denver Police Department https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...d-300-n1080756 |
Egregious, he should sue both the hotel and the peeping tom who called the police.
Common sense appears to have suffered oxygen deprivation in Denver. |
Whoever the good samaritan, the judge may have been unconvinced by the evidence presented to ascertain the powerful strength of his binoculars.
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Good for him... Now I hope he gets back pay from United for his 6 months suspension. |
As a Denverite, I'm in full support of the pilot. Even if the settlement comes out of my tax dollars.
However, I would just note that the north side of the Westin "on-terminal" hotel is only about 50m from the fully-glazed end-wall of the main terminal hall, in full view of the main security snakepit, the other 200m of the hall, and anyone crossing the intervening courtyard to reach the trains to downtown. 100s to 1000s of people depending on time of day. Unless one is fully on-board with the idea of presenting a scene from The Full Monty for the cheering crowds - stay away from the windows when nude! ;) They will have rather a clear and close view. |
As the Brits would say, "What a Pr**k"
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I’m more interested in the fact that his bed is made??? Where did he sleep, or wake up for that matter! |
If thine eye doth offend thee, pluck it out.
Or just look away. Arrest the complainant for "Peep and Pry." What if it had been a naked female?? |
Originally Posted by OMAAbound
(Post 10618125)
I’m more interested in the fact that his bed is made??? Where did he sleep, or wake up for that matter! |
Originally Posted by Jet Jockey A4
(Post 10617867)
Good for him... Now I hope he gets back pay from United for his 6 months suspension. Collins was suspended with pay from his job for six months until the criminal case was dismissed in March by a judge, at the recommendation of the Denver district attorney’s office. The pilot was also running for election to serve as the president of the pilots’ union, but he withdrew his candidacy because of the arrest. “I wish the DIA Westin would have called me and let me know I was putting on a show in my birthday suit. I had no idea. I woke up in a strange hotel room, opened the curtains, got ready to shower, and got a phone call that lasted 24 minutes. … I now realize that some unseen people in the terminal were watching me from over 100 yards away,” Collins said in a statement in March. One Transportation Security Administration officer told police he could see Collins “touching himself” and waving at him [without using his hands according to some crew bus versions of the tale] from the 10th-floor room. That’s absurd, Collins said in an interview last November. “Some witnesses said I was dancing, gyrating and waving,” he said. “I’m completely innocent. It’s really unfortunate that it happened at all.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/12/naked-united-airlines-pilot-arrested-at-dia-settlement/
Originally Posted by etudiant
(Post 10617766)
Egregious, he should sue both the hotel and the peeping tom who called the police.
Common sense appears to have suffered oxygen deprivation in Denver. For his part, Collins says, "The biggest relief for me was when the criminal case was dismissed. You're an innocent person in lockdown for 23 hours a day in a jail cell — and that's not to mention the suffering my family had to go through the whole time." With respect to the settlement, he feels "that was the logical next step, and it's great that I was vindicated. But we think the Westin shares some culpability, too — and in our system, you have to be prepared to go down that road" toward a possible lawsuit. Even with the settlement from Denver, Collins stresses that the fallout from his arrest is not yet behind him. He had to drop out of the race for the union presidency because of his arrest, "and I still have to explain the situation every time I go to work to every first officer I fly with or every flight attendant who brings it up: 'Oh, you were that guy.' And coming through Customs, which I sometimes do multiple times on the same trip — I often fly to Central America, Mexico, the islands — I'm pulled aside by Homeland Security and asked if I've been arrested. The case was dismissed and expunged from my record, but I'm still compelled to tell Homeland Security about the arrest. "So I'm required to talk about it continually, and it continues to be difficult," he adds. "So I'm pleased that Denver has acknowledged that it did something wrong, and I think commonsense people will understand that this was an unjust situation. But I still haven't been made whole."Body cam video of the arrest in this article link: https://www.westword.com/news/denver...pilot-11545333 |
I bet his ears will be burning every time he hears the "gear down" call. It's enough to trigger PTSD.
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Originally Posted by OMAAbound
(Post 10618125)
I’m more interested in the fact that his bed is made??? Where did he sleep, or wake up for that matter! It looks to me like a 2 bed bedroom. |
Originally Posted by Jet Jockey A4
(Post 10618225)
It looks to me like a 2 bed bedroom.
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Originally Posted by Airbubba
(Post 10617760)
He was a front runner to be the new head of ALPA National.
He was arrested in New York and the rest is history ... |
This is a good reminder that regardless of the right or wrong of this incident, when in the US, never let yourself be exposed in this way. Don't be naked with window curtains open, be super extremely careful if you have to take a leak somewhere and only do so if you really have to go, etc.
In the end, no matter how innocent or on the 'right' side you are, it is not worth an arrest record or a few days in jail(as happened here), especially when a few seconds could have been spent covering up to close the curtains, etc. One has to deal with the way things are, not the way they should be. |
Originally Posted by tcasblue
(Post 10618674)
One has to deal with the way things are, not the way they should be.
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Agitate for change, certainly, but be smart about it. |
Originally Posted by zerograv
(Post 10618605)
In 2011 the head of IMF was a potential candidate for the 2012 French Presidency election.
He was arrested in New York and the rest is history ... Although there are minor differences between the circumstances. Like Capt Collins being awarded $300,000 in compensation rather then reportedly paying out $1.5 m to his alleged victim, for example. |
Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
(Post 10618794)
Indeed he was.
Although there are minor differences between the circumstances. Like Capt Collins being awarded $300,000 in compensation rather then reportedly paying out $1.5 m to his alleged victim, for example. Nothing is mentioned about any compensation being payed to Capt Collins chances to become the head of ALPA National remained intact, or the overall result was exactly the same ? |
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....160f04a3e2.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7e040d031b.jpg Seems like many airlines have a story about a pilot who was caught exposing himself through a layover hotel room window. Gamal El-Batouti, the career FO in the 1999 Egyptair 990 crash, was caught at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York according to an FBI report that was originally included in the online NTSB accident docket. The FBI report now seems to be offline, perhaps for diplomatic reasons. |
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