The man pleaded guilty to sexual assault during the flight

A 52-year-old caterer from New York pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexually assaulting a man sitting next to him on a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu in August 2023.

Juan Carlos Rios Gaviria, of Queens, faces federal charges of assault from Hawaiian Airlines Flight 51 on July 25, 2023, with “intent to commit a felony, namely, forcible sexual contact” by willfully and intentionally “touching and making physical contact … in an offensive manner.” thus without excuse or excuse.’

He will be sentenced March 10 by Senior U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright and remains free on bail. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

Rios Gaviria was originally charged in a federal criminal case with simple assault and forcible sexual contact. He surrendered to FBI agents in Brooklyn on August 22, 2023.

Ríos Gaviria was traveling nonstop from JFK International Airport to Daniel C. Inouye International Airport and was seated in the middle row next to a married father whom Ríos Gaviria did not know before boarding. The two spoke and “exchanged mutual phone numbers” while the plane taxied before takeoff after Rios Gaviria offered to guide the man and his family if they ever visited Colombia. Rios Gaviria told the man that he was married to a woman, but after the divorce he was seeing a man who lived in Hawaii.

He provided a written statement in Spanish to an FBI agent in which he explained the events “in his own words” and claimed that during their conversation the man he assaulted “talked about having sex with men in the past but not doing it anymore, because he was married. .”

During the flight, Rios Gaviria repeatedly touched a passenger, who pushed Rios Gaviria’s hand away and told him that he “didn’t like it” and “it made him uncomfortable.” He told Rios Gaviria that he did not want to be touched, and Rios Gaviria stopped groping him.

Later in the flight, Rios Gaviria grabbed the man’s genitals and he pushed him away again. Ríos Gaviria tried again, and the man fought him off with one hand and used the in-flight touchscreen with the other to call a flight attendant.

Rios Gaviria “immediately withdrew his hands and apologized.”

According to the crew, the man who was groped was visibly angry and had tears in his eyes.

He was allowed to sit in the spare captain’s seat for the rest of the flight.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aislin K. Affinito is prosecuting the case. Assistant Federal Public Defender Maximilian Mizono is representing Rios Gaviria.