CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has denied a new trial for a suburban Chicago business traveler convicted of groping a female passenger during an airline flight while she slept next to him.
Jurors convicted Srinivasa Erramilli (srin-ih-VAH-suh air-ah-MILL’-ee) last year of felony abusive sexual contact.
The Aurora-based software consultant was in a seat between a couple returning to Chicago from Las Vegas where they’d celebrated their anniversary.
The woman testified she awoke when Erramilli touched her a third and final time. She began hitting him and calling him “a pervert.”
Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow (LEHF’-koh) posted her ruling denying the defense request for a new trial Friday. She rejects the suggestion Erramilli may have inadvertently brushed the woman’s leg.
Sentencing is set for April 26. Erramilli faces a maximum 2-year prison term.
