A passenger ejected from a St. Thomas to New York flight was granted permission to travel after making an unscheduled stop in Superior Court Magistrates Division on May 27. Court documents say defendant Clayton R. Hines was removed from American Airlines Flight #936, scheduled to depart May 26, after flight attendants reported an intoxicated passenger on board.
He and a travel companion were taken back to the terminal at Cyril E. King Airport, where service agents told Port Authority Police Hines began creating a disturbance.
The agent rebooked Hines and his companion for a later flight, but the defendant allegedly continued to shout obscenities in the terminal. Arresting officers said the defendant was detained after refusing verbal orders to calm down and allegedly resisting attempts to place him in handcuffs.
Officers also reported the suspect’s breath smelling of alcohol.
Hines appeared at a hearing on May 27 before Superior Court Magistrate Paula Norkadis, who upheld charges of simple assault, resisting arrest, and disturbance of the peace.
Bail was set at $1,000; the magistrate granted the defendant permission to travel on May 30 after ordering him to appear for arraignment at Barbel Plaza on June 14.
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A passenger on a safari bus described as a vagrant was placed on $30,000 bail after allegedly accosting two female passengers — including a nine-year-old girl. The defendant was arrested on May 28.
The first female passenger told police on May 27 that the suspect — identified as Coulav Swan — began touching her from the time she boarded the vehicle, and she placed her handbag on the seat between them to ward off her alleged assailant. Further details contained in a police report filed in Superior Court said a mother with two children then boarded the safari and sat between the two passengers and the female complainant.
One of the children — the nine-year-old — later told police she saw the man sitting next to her pull the zipper of his pants up and down repeatedly, exposing and rubbing his genitals. The minor’s six-year-old brother told authorities he also saw the man sitting beside his sister place his hand in his pants.
All of the passengers involved in the alleged incident got off as the vehicle stopped at Tutu Park Mall. When the minors told their mother what happened, she alerted the safari driver, court records said. The passenger who first encountered the suspect later told police she saw Swan enter the mall after disembarking.
“The mother stated that later she saw that he was escorted out of the mall by security for being in the women’s bathroom,” the police report said.
Swan was charged with unlawful sexual contact, obscene and indecent conduct and vagrancy. At an initial hearing held May 29, Magistrate Paula Norkadis set bail at $30,000 with no provision for a lesser amount upon cash bond.
