In a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, an anonymous NFL player said he and a friend were repeatedly groped by a woman while flying from Los Angeles to New Jersey.
He is suing United Airlines for negligence, infliction of emotional distress due to his treatment on the flight.
The player, identified only as "John Doe" in the lawsuit, said he was on a red-eye United flight on February 10 with a friend when they were seated next to a woman in the window seat.
According to TMZ, the suit states the man was "sexually harassed, assaulted, abused, and violated" by the passenger while United Airlines flight attendants refused to help him.
As soon as the NFL player sat down in the middle seat, the woman began to comment on his decision to wear a mask on the flight before taking unidentified pills and becoming intoxicated.
The lawsuit states the NFL player tried to notify flight attendants that the woman was under the influence of something and was repeatedly touching his crotch, but little was done to help him. The player said the woman continued to assault him by "grabbing and groping his quads and then stroking her hand across his lap towards the inside of his leg near his genitals," according to TMZ. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles.
After he begged the flight attendant for help, the woman was verbally warned to stop touching Doe, but little else was done.
The situation reached another level when the woman allegedly tore off the NFL player's mask and grabbed his penis. Doe left his seat to go speak to flight attendants, and the woman then began to grope his friend, according to the lawsuit.
Flight attendants eventually had no choice but to move the woman to an unoccupied row on the plane. Bleacher Report's Master Tesfatsion wrote on Twitter that the flight attendants didn't move the woman until the fourth complaint.
Breaking: A NFL player is suing @United Airlines, alleging that he was sexually assaulted & harassed multiple times by a woman on a recent flight. The lawsuit states United Airlines failed to properly respond during the flight, and failed to cooperate with authorities. pic.twitter.com/oS4DJZlc7V
— Master (@MasterTes) May 20, 2020
"Those who report assaults should not be ignored, but believed, their claims investigated and appropriate action taken where warranted," the attorney who filed the lawsuit told TMZ.
The two men were further incensed when the airline only offered them $150 vouchers in response to their complaints about the woman. ESPN reported the airline also refused to give them the name of the woman after they asked repeatedly.
United has since responded to the story, telling TMZ that the "safety and well-being of our customers is always our top priority."
"In this instance, the customer involved was moved to a different seat. Because litigation is now pending, we’re unable to provide further comment," United said in a statement.
The unidentified NFL player and “John Doe 2” are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
A statement I received from attorneys Darren Darwish and Benji Azizian: pic.twitter.com/5LxX2BblLr
— Master (@MasterTes) May 20, 2020
"We bring this lawsuit with the hope that it will be one of the last of its kind. Our wish would be that in the future no passengers' multiple warnings and complaints to flight attendants, the onboard authority figures, will go unheaded until its too late and the damage has been done," the statement read.
