The Daily Populous Saturday May 25th, 2024 night edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by longhegrindilemna

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines has distanced itself from a court filing in which the carrier said a 9-year-old girl should have noticed there was a camera taped to the seat of an airplane lavatory.

A former flight attendant is accused of luring girls to use the lavatory after taping his iPhone to the toilet seat. The 9-year-old’s family flew from Texas to California on American last year and sued the airline after the FBI told them that videos of the girl were found on the flight attendant’s phone.

In response to the lawsuit, American said in a court document that it would dispute the family’s claim by showing that any injuries the 9-year-old girl suffered were caused by the girl’s “own fault and negligence, were proximately caused by (her) use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”

An American spokesperson said Thursday that outside lawyers working for the company “made an error in this filing.”

“We do not believe this child is at fault, and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously,” the spokesperson said.

Lawyers for the airline amended the filing Wednesday in a state district court in Austin, Texas. The new filing is shorter and deletes the accusation that the girl caused her own injuries.

Estes Carter Thompson III, a flight attendant who was later fired by American, pleaded not guilty this week to attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse.

Authorities say Thompson, 37, tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using the bathroom on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, and had recordings of four girls including the 9-year-old using lavatories on earlier flights. He was arrested in January and has been in federal custody ever since.

Thompson is next due in federal court in Boston on July 1. The charges he faces carry maximum sentences of up to 30 and 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.

The 14-year-old’s family is also suing American, which is based in Fort Worth.

This story has been corrected to note that Thompson is 37, not 36.

ResurgentClusterfuck on May 24th, 2024 at 15:04 UTC »

So a team of high priced attorneys "accidentally" wrote that up, "accidentally" proofread it and ran it past the lead attorney, "accidentally" printed it up, and then "accidentally" filed it with the court?

Uh huh.

WatchmanVimes on May 24th, 2024 at 14:45 UTC »

Journalists uncovered this. Support your newspapers and channels that actually do journalism

longhegrindilemna on May 24th, 2024 at 14:28 UTC »

American said in a court document that it would dispute the family’s claim by showing that any injuries the 9-year-old girl suffered were caused by the girl’s “own fault and negligence were caused by (her) using the compromised lavatory, which she should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”

An American spokesperson later said that outside lawyers working for the company “made an error in this filing.”

“We do not believe this child is at fault,” the spokesperson now says.

Estes Carter Thompson III, a flight attendant who was later fired by American, pleaded not guilty to attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse.

Authorities say Thompson, 37, tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using the bathroom on a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston, and had recordings of four girls on earlier flights, including the 9-year-old.

He was arrested in January and has been in federal custody ever since.