Man from Texas gropes stranger in first class on late-night flight, feds say

A 59-year-old has been found guilty in connection with the sexual assault of a woman onboard a late-night flight, federal prosecutors said.

In 2022, Robert Sutherland MacLean, of Frisco, Texas, was a first-class passenger on a flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City when he “made calculated and sexually laced statements to a stranger seated next to him while he sexually assaulted her multiple times,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said in a July 23 news release.

“Mr. MacLean unlawfully and illegally imposed his will upon another person — sexually assaulting her over and over again on that late night flight,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Reeves said during the trial, according to the release.

McClatchy News reached out to MacLean’s lawyers for comment on July 25 and was awaiting a response.

In April 2023, MacLean was charged with abusive sexual contact in the special aircraft of the United States, prosecutors said.

MacLean is scheduled to reappear in court on Oct. 1 for his sentencing, prosecutors said.

This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Man from Texas gropes stranger in first class on late-night flight, feds say."