A Manhattan man has been accused of assaulting a sleeping woman on a cross-country flight by putting his hand under her skirt and massaging her inner thigh.
When the 32-year-old woman woke up and demanded to know what he was doing, 50-year-old Brett Zorse allegedly retorted: ‘It’s not like I molested you. It’s not like I stuck my finger in your p***y or grabbed your t**s.’
Zorse reportedly then added: ‘I wouldn’t mind a massage right now.’
The alleged incident took place on a JetBlue service from San Francisco to New York in April 2012 and an affidavit was presented to a U.S District Court in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
The Smoking Gun obtained the probable cause statement relating to the allegations. Zorse has been charged with simple assault and could spend up to six months in prison if found guilty. His next court date is April 2.
The man, who lives on the East Side of Manhattan, was traveling with his 12-year-old son and was sat in between the woman and the boy on the April 12 flight.
According to the court documents Zorse introduced himself to the woman before takeoff. She claims that his ‘conversations throughout the flight all turned to a sexual nature’ and that he was physically very ‘touchy feely.’
The alleged victim was sitting in the aisle seat and recalled that at one point during the journey she offered to get something Zorse wanted from the overhead locker.
She added that this would save him having to climb over her to retrieve his belongings. According to the document, he replied: ‘I’d really like to climb all over you.’
The probable cause statement describes how Zorse bought the woman a drink around two and half hours in the flight.
She says she then took some sleeping medication, listened to music and fell asleep. The 32-year-old claims she was woken around 40 minutes before arrival at JFK to find ‘Zorse massaging her thigh underneath her skirt.’
She left her seat in tears and went to the bathroom. The woman claims says that Zorse asked ‘What’s the matter you don’t trust me anymore?’ as she stood up.
The alleged victim got Zorse’s business card on arrival in New York and then didn’t go directly to baggage claim as she claims she wanted to avoid the man.
She didn’t initially alert authorities about the incident but later contacted JetBlue and New York police.
Zorse told investigators that he had talked to the female passenger next to him, that ‘the conversations were sexual in nature at times and he believed she was flirting with him, telling him he was attractive and he was a good father.’
He admitted to placing his hand on the woman’s leg for ‘approximately 30 seconds’ but denied putting his hand up her skirt.
Zorse claims that he didn’t know the woman was asleep, he believed the pair had a ‘bond’ and that he didn’t think she would ‘have a problem’ with his hand on her leg.
The 50-year-old reported that he did have an alcoholic drink before getting on the flight and ‘a couple on the aircraft.’
In the probable cause document, Zorse added that he ‘could have said something like “It’s not like I stuck my finger up your p***y or grabbed your t**s.”‘
