Man accused of groping 13-year-old girl during flight will stay in jail

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN/AP) – An airline passenger accused of groping a 13-year-old girl on a flight from Dallas to Portland will remain in jail for now.

At a hearing Monday in Portland, Magistrate Judge John Jelderks agreed with prosecutors to keep Chad Camp behind bars. He will be granted temporary release for drug-and-alcohol evaluation.

Camp pleaded not guilty after his arrest last week on a federal charge of abusive sexual conduct.

The judge noted that 26-year-old suburban Portland man has a history of substance abuse, and warned him that there’s a big difference between “being a drunk and a drunk who abuses youngsters.”

Authorities say a flight attendant saw Camp grope the unaccompanied minor shortly after takeoff on the American Airlines flight.

A witness said Camp had four mixed drinks at an airport bar.

The 13-year-old’s mom was in tears Monday as she recalled the incident, saying both the suspect and American Airlines need to be held accountable.

“It’s so many different emotions… initially you’re shocked and then you’re angry,” she said. “You’re sad that your child has to deal with this for the rest of her life.”

She paid $150 more each way for her daughter to fly alone and thought she would be protected. Instead, the girl spent 30 minutes trying to get Camp to stop touching her.

“At one point she said, ‘What are you doing to me?’ and nobody could hear because no one was even close enough,” the victim’s mom said. “A lot of comments [say], ‘Why didn’t she say something?’ and she did and he laughed… If somebody would have been close enough to hear it could have been prevented.”

She says the airline needs more detailed policies to protect unaccompanied minors on flights, like making sure they are always seated near flight attendants.

Now the family is working to file a civil suit against the airline.The Associated Press contributed to this report.