HONOLULU – Federal authorities have arrested a Pearl Harbor-based sailor for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to Phoenix.
The teenager was sitting in a window seat next to 40-year-old Shawn Michael Cole when she felt Cole sexually grope her inside and outside her underwear while he fondled himself.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Phoenix says the girl pretended to be asleep because she was afraid.
A flight attendant asked the girl if she knew the man when she saw Cole caressing her lips.
She moved the girl to another seat when the girl said no.
Authorities arrested Cole after the plane landed Friday morning.
Cole is a storekeeper chief aboard the USS Olympia submarine.
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