FLIGHT FONDLE FORGIVE No jail by judge?!

A Brooklyn man convicted of fondling a sleeping woman aboard an international flight to JFK Airport dodged prison time, thanks to a lenient federal judge.

Daniel Katz, 36, was sentenced Friday to one year of probation — including three months of unmonitored home detention

— and 75 hours of community service for the 2018 molestation of the 25-year-old victim, according to court records.

Federal prosecutors had asked Judge Frederic Block (inset) to throw Katz behind bars for up to 21 months after his June 2021 conviction.

But Katz, who said he was a volunteer at an upstate children’s summer camp, must register as a sex offender.

The victim, identified in court records as “Gina,” was sitting next to Katz aboard Etihad Airways Flight 103 on Feb. 23, 2018, from Abu Dhabi. She told authorities that after she dozed off, Katz put his hand down her pants and began fondling her.

Gina testified that she awoke feeling “terrified” and “violated” and burst into tears. “I had absolutely no intention of engaging in any physical, especially sexual, activity with him,” she told the jury. “It was something that was forced upon me, and I had no say in the experience.”

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.

“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.”

Gina tried to contact the airline and finally called the NYPD, which referred the case to the FBI.

Block, 88, who was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994, has been mired in controversy.

‘Don’t give a . . .’

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.”

In another case, Block referred to female assault victims as “no angels” as he sentenced their attacker to time served.

Block also refused to lock up disgraced former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. in 2012 after the ex-pol was accused of a parole violation.

And last year he came under fire off the bench as well when he was hit with a misconduct complaint for allegedly using his judicial influence against a Fort Lauderdale condo association where he owns a unit.

Block, who was later cleared of wrongdoing, had addressed a letter to the association using his official letterhead in a dispute over construction at the condo complex.