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Airport News, "Passenger indicted over Newark airport scuffle"
Thursday, November 11, 1999
Passenger indicted over airport scuffleBy DAVID VOREACOS
Staff Writer
The Bergen Record
A grand jury Wednesday indicted an airline passenger on aggravated assault
charges linked to a confrontation with an employee at Newark International
Airport that provoked national debate about "air rage."
Essex County grand jurors in Newark charged John C. Davis Jr. for allegedly
slamming Angelo Sottile, a gate agent for Continental Airlines, headfirst
into the floor. Sottile suffered a broken neck and fractured skull in the
July scuffle.
Authorities say Davis, 29, of Fredericksburg, Va., lacked a boarding pass
when Sottile stopped him as the passenger chased his son, who was entering a
jetway leading to a plane.
Davis said he acted in self-defense after Sottile grabbed him by the neck.
But many witnesses have disputed that account, leading police to file an
aggravated assault charge that preceded Wednesday's indictment.
Continental applauded the indictment and condemned the attack on Sottile.
The 50-year-old Kearny resident and father of two suffered two broken bones
in his neck and a fractured skull. Doctors say he has permanently lost 60
percent of neck motion.
"No airline customer, employee, airport worker, or flight crew should ever
have to face the kind of violence that was leveled against our gate agent,"
Continental CEO Gordon Bethune said in a prepared statement.
Sottile did not return phone messages left at his house.
He had appeared at an August news conference with a metal halo screwed into
his skull that immobilized his head and neck. Sottile said at the time that
he bore no hard feelings toward Davis.
Davis, who works as an assistant plant manager for a steel company, is
scheduled to appear Monday for an arraignment in Essex County Superior Court
in Newark. His attorney, Anthony Pope, vowed to vigorously fight the case.
"My client was defending himself" against Sottile, Pope said. "I'm
optimistic that the jury will be able to compartmentalize the issues at
trial."
Eight days after the July 22 incident, Davis filed a lawsuit in Essex County
against Continental, alleging that its poor training caused its workers "to
be violent and hostile toward their customers and the traveling public."
The airline has had the case moved to U.S. District Court in Newark, where
Continental filed a counterclaim that alleged Davis entered the jetway
without authorization before assaulting Sottile.
U.S. District Judge Alfred J. Lechner Jr. has set a Feb. 8 trial date.
Davis also filed a simple assault charge against Sottile, which is pending
in Newark Municipal Court.
Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Leslie J. Mann said the grand jurors did
not consider the assault charge against Sottile because it is not an
indictable offense.
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