A Seattle man was sentenced to eight months in prison for groping a teen girl on a flight from Paris to Washington state in 2022, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Milan Edward Jurkovic, 36, was convicted in December of abusive sexual contact after a three-day jury trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington said in a statement.
Court documents show Jurkovic pleaded not guilty.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said the assault “shouldn’t have happened,” prosecutors said.
“The flight back should have been nothing less than the end of a joyous trip and instead she is the victim of a crime,” Lasnik said of the girl.
Jurkovic assaulted the girl on July 3, 2022, on an Air France flight from Paris to Seattle, prosecutors said. The teen was traveling with a school group, U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in the statement.
“Trapped in an aircraft cabin, these assaults are particularly traumatic for vulnerable young people who trust the adults around them to behave appropriately,” Gorman said. “In this case the defendant groped a teenager traveling with a school group. She bravely spoke up. As I noted a year ago, we have a zero-tolerance policy for these aircraft sexual assaults. Predators will be prosecuted.”
Jurkovic’s attorney listed in court records could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
The teen victim, who sat next to Jurkovic for hours on the flight, was with a school group from western Washington returning from a class trip abroad, prosecutors said.
Roughly three hours into the flight, Jurkovic reached under a blanket, prosecutors said, and began to grope the victim’s thigh.
“The victim was shocked and frozen with fear,” prosecutors said. Jurkovic continued to rub her thigh for an "extended period of time" and touched her inner thigh, prosecutors said.
The girl sought help from a classmate and then her chaperone. The chaperone traded places with her for the rest of the flight, prosecutors said.
Port of Seattle police met the flight when it landed at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, prosecutors said, and law enforcement officers interviewed the girl.
Jurkovic told inconsistent stories to different people, prosecutors said.
“He told the chaperone he had been rubbing his leg due to bad circulation, suggesting that he inadvertently touched the victim,” according to prosecutors. He later told police he did not hurt anyone and volunteered that he had an itch on his leg, prosecutors said.
The FBI and port police investigated, authorities said.
