Man who molested sleeping woman during flight will not serve jail time

A Brooklyn man will not serve jail time, even though a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman during a transatlantic flight several years ago.

On February 24, 2018, Daniel Katz of Brooklyn was on a flight from Abu Dhabi to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. He was sitting in an aisle seat, while an unnamed woman, who was then 25 years old, sat in a nearby window seat. During the flight, the woman had fallen asleep, and while she was unconscious, Katz stuck his hand down her pants and sexually assaulted her. In June 2021, a federal jury convicted Katz of both abusive sexual contact and assault for the incident.

On Friday, Katz was finally sentenced. Judge Frederic Block, a Clinton appointee, disregarded the recommendation of federal prosecutors, who argued vociferously that Katz should serve prison time for attacking a "young, vulnerable woman who was sleeping in a darkened aircraft cabin." Instead, Judge Block sentenced Katz to a year of probation, 75 hours of community service, and three months of house arrest. Katz, 36, will also have to register as a sex offender.

At the hearing, the victim read a pre-written statement, expressing the trauma she has experienced since the assault and her frustration with "the system" in general.

"It’s traumatizing — stuck on a flight for what seemed like days with my abuser," she said. "I can’t count how many panic attacks or breakdowns I have had over the weight of this. It still makes me feel so small."

"It’s shocking in 2022, no matter how much and well women have fought for rights, that this has to be debated in court whether it's right or wrong," she continued, her parents in attendance for support. "I’m addressing the system that has the power to change things, so another young woman won’t hide her abuse."

When it was his turn to speak, Katz also showed strong emotion. He called the attack "a lapse in judgment" and insisted, through tears — which the New York Daily News characterized as "whimpers" —that he "will always seek to get verbal consent" from women in the future.

In defending the sentence, Block insisted that jail time was not necessary in this case since registering as a sex offender "will impact [Katz's] ability to find employment and travel. [The] sex offender registry would cause enormous collateral damage."

Block has long advocated against prison time, even for felons. He previously claimed that prison time serves "no useful function other than to further punish criminal defendants after they have completed their court-imposed sentences," the Daily Mail reports. Block has instead preferred sentencing criminals to "collateral consequences" in lieu of prison.

The Daily Mail reported that, as of Sunday morning, Katz apparently has not yet registered as a sex offender.