A man has been ordered to pay just $500 in restitution to a young female victim he admitted to having abusive sexual contact with on a Frontier Airlines flight in 2017. The man has also been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and will spend a further six years on probation when he is released from prison.
Ian Wagner, 39, of New Haven, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in September 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to one count of abusive sexual contact with a sleeping woman on a Frontier Airlines flight between Indianapolis to Denver.
Wagner had been accused of masturbating next to his teenage victim and rubbing her inner thigh. The 18-year-old victim was traveling alone and had fallen asleep next to Wagner when she awoke and found him rubbing her inner thigh with his hand.
The victim initially managed to escape Wagner by fleeing to the lavatory where she hid for several minutes. Unsure of what to do, the victim returned to her original seat because she thought the flight was full and there was nowhere else for her to sit.
She did, however, manage to take a photo of Wagner on her cellphone which was later used to identify him.
When she got back to her seat she discovered that Wagner had placed his jacket over his lap and his hand appeared to be moving up and down underneath the jacket.
Wagner started staring at the victim and moved his jacket slightly to expose his penis. He stared at the victim for as long as six minutes while masturbating, court records show. Eventually, Wagner stopped and zipped up his pants but he continued to stare at his young victim for much of the remainder of the flight.
Although the victim didn’t report the crime to flight attendants, she told Frontier’s customer care representatives about the incident several days later and then filed a crime report with police on her return to Indianapolis.
Wagner had faced a maximum potential sentence of three years imprisonment, plus a $250,000 fine.
TOTH: C Boarding Group
Not sure why anyone cares about the $500. Restitution is a pretty rare part of sentencing in the US for non-economic crimes, since criminal law is not about compensating victims. That’s what civil lawsuits are for.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear this guy wasn’t able to get a plea deal without jail time.