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After standing for the verdict, 49-year-old Bower Aksal slumped into his chair and slowly placed his head on the defendant’s table, wiping tears.
Sitting behind him in the Newark federal courtroom, the 50-year-old victim, wept as well, while nodding approval.
The nine men and three woman on the jury deliberated for roughly seven hours over two days before convicting Aksal of sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.
Aksal, an ethnic Kurd who runs a service company that includes the St. Regis Hotel in New York and El Mexicano restaurant in Paterson among its affiliations, technically could be sent to federal prison for life. U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares set an Oct. 23 sentencing date.
At the request of Assistant US Attorney Danielle Alfonso Walsman, who called Aksal a “substantial risk of flight,” Linares ordered him held until sentencing. U.S. marshals then handcuffed Aksal and took him away.
“We’re all profoundly disappointed, but we accept what the jurors have said,” defense attorney Robert DeGroot said, reading from a statement outside the courtroom.
Aksal insisted during the trial what went on in the air between Phoenix and Newark was consensual sex.
But witnesses — and the woman herself — told a different story of what happened on United Airlines Flight 306 last Aug. 20.
The victim said she awoke to find Aksal using his finger to penetrate her.
RELATED: Airplane sex assault trial: Passengers testify of odd behavior by accused molester
Federal trial beginning for North Bergen man accused of molesting woman on plane to Newark
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