Star Tribune
Passenger sues Delta, alleging attendants conspired to hide sexual assault by off-duty employee
A Delta flight passenger has sued the airline in federal court, alleging an off-duty employee groped and sexually assaulted her on a flight to Minneapolis, and that the attendants over-served the employee alcohol.
It also alleges on-flight attendants conspired to hide what happened.
Alison Petri, who is in her early 40s, was on a flight Nov. 17, 2022, coming home from Las Vegas. Petri was in the aisle seat next to Abigail Louise Trebnick-Emerson.
Trebnick-Emerson — a Wisconsin resident who also has a Nevada residence listed in a related state criminal case — boarded with a “crew” bag, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court. The civil suit names Trebnick-Emerson and Delta Air Lines as the defendants.
The employee was using a flight pass to allow her to fly for free or a reduced rate because she works for Delta, the complaint alleges. It does not specify her job within Delta.
The complaint says an on-duty attendant served Trebnick-Emerson four cans of wine before she kissed the Petri on the mouth without consent.
Petri told the attendant, but he “did nothing” to stop Trebnick-Emerson, the complaint alleges.
The off-duty worker was “obviously intoxicated” and the attendant continued to serve her wine, the complaint says.
After drinking a fifth can of wine, the off-duty worker kissed Petri on the neck multiple times, despite Petri telling her not to, the lawsuit states. The plaintiff says Trebnick-Emerson vaped on the plane, and that she rubbed Petri’s buttocks as she stood to get her bags.
After getting off the plane, Petri told the gate agents about what happened and asked to contact law enforcement.
Trebnick-Emerson tried to leave the airport after getting off the plane, but she fell down an escalator and airport police responded, the lawsuit states. The court filing also includes security footage, allegedly of Trebnick-Emerson falling down the escalator. She was later charged with disorderly conduct and criminal sexual conduct.
The sexual conduct charge was later dropped and Trebnick-Emerson pleaded guilty in June to disorderly conduct. Her attorney in the state case did not return a call seeking comment Monday.
The lawsuit accuses two attendants of lying about Trebnick-Emerson’s behavior on the plane to protect her.
One of the Facebook Messenger screenshots included in the lawsuit shows an attendant telling Trebnick-Emerson that Delta investigators tried to get a statement from the employees who witnessed her behavior, but that they “denied knowing anything and left.”
The lawsuit alleges the on-duty attendants provided “false and inaccurate” information about the events.
Trebnick-Emerson said in a message to the attendant that she did not remember kissing the woman, before the attendant later states, “Yeah, you were pretty bombed,” screenshots in the lawsuit show.
One month after the incident, Trebnick-Emerson sent the other attendant a Facebook message, saying that Petri “filed charges against me based on false accusations and lie(s),” another screenshot filed in the lawsuit attachment shows.
Petri’s attorney Jeff Storms said in an interview that he is worried about past instances of Delta overserving alcohol to passengers, and in the lawsuit listed four cases of alleged sexual assault by intoxicated people on Delta flights in recent years.
He also raised concern about whether there are deeper issues in the company with attendants protecting other employees after bad behavior.
“To conspire to conceal information from both Delta and law enforcement investigators is deeply troubling,” Storms said.
Delta declined to comment on the specific incident in an emailed statement to the Star Tribune. The statement noted that Delta “does not tolerate inappropriate or unlawful behavior,” and that “nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our people.”
A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.
The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.
Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.
A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.
Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.
That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.
Star Tribune
Duluth man involved in chaotic aftermath of fatal stabbing turns himself in 6 months later
DULUTH – On the mid-April night that Chantel Moose was fatally stabbed outside a downtown bar, Trayvon Joseph Walters fired at least two shots toward the fleeing suspect and a man who was pistol-whipping the accused. Then Walters took off for six months.
Walters, 27, traveled back from Colorado and turned himself in to local law enforcement officials on Wednesday morning, according to his attorney, assistant public defender Aaron Haddorff. He faces charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — along with unrelated charges of second-degree assault from 2020 — and appeared before Judge Eric Hylden in the afternoon at the St. Louis County Courthouse. His bail is set at $250,000.
Kimonte Travion Cadge, 26, who was taken to a hospital for the gunshot wound Walters allegedly inflicted, was charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He was extradited from Cook County Jail in Chicago and was booked in St. Louis County Jail in September.
According to the criminal complaint: Moose and Plummer, who is friends with Moose’s ex-boyfriend, got into an argument after bar close on April 12 outside Spurs on 1st Street. A bouncer intervened, and Plummer reached over him to take a swipe at Moose with a knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade. Moose backed up and walked away before she dropped to the sidewalk.
When Plummer saw her fall, he took off running.
Cadge chased him, pistol-whipped him, then fired his gun at him. Walters, according to the criminal complaint, fired at least two shots toward both men, then left in a vehicle. Cadge retreated to a nearby apartment before he was transported to the hospital.
Moose was pronounced dead at a hospital, with a stab wound to the right side of her chest.
Meanwhile, dollars have been flowing to state, local and tribal governments from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. And Minnesota lawmakers approved $200 million last year to address substance abuse over the following four years, according to Gov. Tim Walz’s administration.
The state launched a portal last year for groups to access free naloxone, and according to the Department of Health it gave out 124,000 kits between last September and this July. But DeLaquil said funding ran out and people can no longer order kits through the portal. Many other organizations, like Steve Rummler HOPE Network, continue to distribute the medicine.
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