What happened to the United flight attendant arrested in Tampa for tapping a crewmember of another airline on the shoulder?
- In Florida, police can arrest for misdemeanor ‘simple battery’ that they did not witness, based on a complaint.
- That’s what happened here after the United flight attendant admitted to tapping a Cayman Airways ticket agent on the shoulder on an employee bus, and trying to capture her ID badge details, after getting angry about her loud phone call.
- The United crewmember missed his flight while being processed, and police bodycam shows the interaction. But what was the outcome?
Reader Big Wes P, who is a former Florida state prosecutor, ran down the case.
Bottom line is the state dropped the charges on May 16, 2025 via its filing of a Nolle Prosequi. …
Took longer than I’d have expected. Fleischmann (Defendant) ponied up for private counsel, so you might say he faced a substantial “fine” in the way of attorney fees.
I don’t see anything in the dockets showing that there was a diversion agreement or deferred prosecution agreement (e.g., do x hours community service and write a letter of apology and we drop charges, etc.). So it’s tough to say what exactly led to the dropping of the charge.
Good guess is the victim cooled down and told the State she’d rather drop charges than have to show up to court herself at some point. In my experience, a battery case (even a “touch battery”) doesn’t get dropped/diverted without the victim’s blessing.
