A 25-year-old New Jersey woman molested while she slept by a male passenger sitting next to her on an Emirates jetliner, testified Monday that she heard somebody whisper in her ear, "I love you, you're pretty," then awoke to find her body and private parts covered with hand lotion.
The victim, who is known to the jury only by her first name, Stephanie, recounted the mortifying incident on the flight from Dubai to Kennedy Airport last October, including having to identify the bottle of Nivea lotion, her dress, and the thong underwear she had been wearing.
Nadeem Memhood Quraish of Staten Island is charged with sexual abuse and could face deportation to his native Pakistan if he is convicted.
Quraishi, who sat in the seat on her right side, asked Stephanie if she had "slept well" when she opened her eyes.
"My entire body felt sticky. I could smell the lotion," she said in Brooklyn Federal Court. "I was shocked. My heart dropped into my stomach.
The woman fled to the bathroom where she noticed her thong had been pushed aside. Her shoulders, breasts, arms, inner thighs, calves, and private parts were slathered with the lotion.
Defense lawyer Mark Macron questioned the woman closely about the Xanax pill she had taken on the 14-hour flight, and how it was possible that Quraish could have rubbed her body with lotion while she was wearing a belted dress, covered by a blanket, and her seat belt strapped.
But Emirates flight attendant Gunjon Mangia took the stand next and said Quraishi matter-of-factly admitted applying the lotion. "When I asked him why he did such a thing, he said, 'Well, I thought she needed it and she didn't offer any resistance so I thought she enjoyed it.'"
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