Prosecutors file charges in 2 sex assault cases on airplanes

SEATTLE — Two men have been charged in separate cases with sexually assaulting women on commercial flights bound for Seattle earlier this year, cases prosecutors said Thursday they hope will encourage victims and others to report such attacks.

“Nobody getting on a plane — not a mother, daughter, sister or son, or anyone else — should have to endure what we allege happened in these cases,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes said at a news conference. “Planes are not a law-free zone.”

The defendants were identified as Babak Rezapour, 41, of Van Nuys, California, and Nicholas Matthew Stevens, 37, of Anchorage, Alaska. Each is in custody and expected to make initial court appearances in their home states in the coming days, prosecutors said.

They face up to two years in prison and could be required to register as a sex o ender if convicted.

Court records did not indicate if either had obtained an attorney.

The FBI says it has seen a jump in reports of sexual assault cases aboard airplanes, especially since the #MeToo movement began focusing attention on the topic in the past year. The number of cases it opened rose from 38 in 2014 to 63 last year, according to agency statistics.

Prosecutors said Rezapour repeatedly groped a 21-year-old woman as she slept during a Norwegian Air flight from London last January. Charging documents said the woman took prescription anti-nausea and anti-anxiety medicine and drank a glass of wine. Later in the flight, Rezapour, who was sitting nearby with one empty seat between them, ordered her a second glass; she felt unusually hazy and had trouble staying awake after drinking it.