Try to be a creep these days and thankfully, it will cost you. A federal TSA agent allegedly tricked a traveler into showing him her breasts as she went through security at Los Angeles International Airport.
California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra said 22-year-old Jonathon Lomeli was working at LAX in June when he used “fraud or deceit” to falsely imprison a woman.” Lomeli was arrested earlier this week at his home following an investigation, according to the Associated Press.
Investigators said Lemoli first told the woman he had to look inside her bra to make sure she wasn’t hiding anything. Then he allegedly had her hold her pants away from her waist so he could look inside, she told investigators.
The alleged harassment did not end there. Lemoli is accused of then taking the woman to what he said would be a private room for more security screening, according to an arrest affidavit. But once they were alone on an elevator, she told investigators he said that they could do the screening right there.
The woman said that Lomeli told her he had to make sure she still had nothing inside her bra and made her lift her shirt “to show me your full breasts.” She also said he looked down her pants again, before telling her she was free to go.
To add insult to injury, he allegedly told her she had nice breasts as she was let go.
Lemoli was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and was expected to make an initial appearance Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Officials with the union representing TSA employees, the American Federation of Government Employees, did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment, and officials could not say if Lomeli has an attorney.
“There is no excuse for this kind of alleged behavior,” Becerra said in a statement.
The TSA initially brought the case to the FBI and Lomeli was fired from his airport job months ago, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
The TSA called the alleged behavior “unacceptable and an affront to the hardworking and committed members of our workforce,” in a statement.
