[imagesource:

People who use arguments like “my dad’s a lawyer” during meltdowns usually come off looking like plonkers.

That’s certainly the case with 22-year-old Maxwell Berry, from Ohio, who has been arrested after punching a Frontier Airlines flight attendant, as well as groping the breasts of two other flight attendants, on a flight from Philadelphia to Miami on July 31.

Berry didn’t go for the classic lawyer-parent tactic, but did make sure that everybody knew his parents were wealthy, which is similar in many ways.

The greatest part of all this is that it ended with Berry being duct-taped to his seat by a flight attendant, while other passengers looked on and cheered.

How genuinely embarrassing:

The New York Times reports that Berry has been charged with three misdemeanour counts of battery after being booked into the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department on Sunday.

He was released on bail later that day.

The trouble began when Mr. Berry ordered his third alcoholic beverage of the flight and brushed his empty cup against a flight attendant’s backside, according to the criminal complaint, which said that the flight attendant told him “don’t touch me.”

Mr. Berry, who had been sitting in seat 28D, then emerged from the bathroom shirtless after spilling his drink, prompting a flight attendant to tell him that he needed to be fully dressed, the complaint said. The flight attendant helped him get a shirt out of his carry-on luggage, and Mr. Berry walked around the cabin for about 15 minutes.

At that point, he groped the breasts of another flight attendant, and later put his arms around the same two flight attendants and groped them again.

This is why flight attendants talk about the public unravelling, with numerous similar incidents occurring over the past year or so.

The male attendant who was punched, and later used duct tape to subdue Berry, has been placed on paid leave while an investigation is carried out.

Aside from the three misdemeanour counts of battery, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is taking a closer look, and interfering with or assaulting flight attendants carries a fine of up to $35 000, as well as possible jail time.

His folks better be good for that $2 million.

[source:nytimes]