By: Rusty Brooks
A federal judge, with a history of giving light sentences to sexual abusers has given a slap-on-the-wrist to a man convicted of assaulting a woman on a flight to JFK.
The New York Post reports, Daniel Katz, 36, was sentenced last week to one year of probation — including three months of unmonitored home detention — and 75 hours of community service for the creepy 2018 sky-high molestation of the 25-year-old woman, according to federal court records.
Prosecutors asked for jail time — but Bill Clinton appointed Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block said placing Katz on the sex offender registry was harsh punishment, NY Daily News reported
Katz sobbed as he read his own statements where he expressed shame and regret, NY Daily News reported
“I would give everything to go back in time,” he said between whimpers. “In the future, I will always seek to get verbal consent.”
He referred to the sexual assault as a “lapse in judgment.”
“I hope you can heal from this, find peace, and live your best life,” Katz told his victim. “My family members can attest how much this weighs on my heart and mind.”
The victim, identified in court records as “Gina,” was sitting next to Katz aboard Etihad Airways Flt. 103 on Feb. 23, 2018, flying from Abu Dhabi to New York.
She told authorities that after she dozed off, Katz put his hand down her pants and began fondling her while she was in her seat, according to the documents obtained by The New York Post.
Gina testified that she awoke feeling “terrified” and “violated” and burst into tears — and cried herself back to sleep.
“I had absolutely no intention of engaging in any physical, especially sexual, activity with him,” she told the jury, the records show. “It was something that was forced upon me, and I had no say in the experience that I experienced.
“And so, no part of me would have ever wanted to engage in that type of situation with a stranger aboard a plane and in public space,” she said.
Katz was confronted by airline personnel and claimed the attack was consensual.
“My neighbor and I began cuddling, which led to us holding hands and eventually me touching her vagina,” he said in a statement he wrote during the flight according to The New York Post.
“She seemed conscious and also seemed to be enjoying our interaction,” he said. “After some time passed afterward, I began to question my actions because we had just met and were on an airplane. Hours later, she seemed upset talking to her friend, so I asked if she was OK and comfortable with what happened, and she said yes.”
But Gina disputed his claims and said she tried numerous times after the flight to reach out to the airline — and finally called the NYPD rape hotline March 2, 2018.
Cops referred the case to the FBI, which charged Katz after an investigation.
He was convicted June 24, 2021, and sentenced Friday.
The judge also ruled that Katz has to stay away from the victim in the case and pay a measly $110 special assessment fee The New York Post exclusively reports.
Katz, reached at his Brooklyn home Sunday, declined comment to The New York Post.
“I appreciate you stopping by, though,” he said through his doorbell intercom.
Block, 88, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Bill Clinton in 1994, has been mired in controversy before.
In 2015, he threw out a gun charge against a violent felon, telling critics of the move, “I’m at the DGS stage of life: Don’t give a s–t.”
