Army Chief Warrant Officer James Benecke pleaded guilty last week to one count of abusive sexual contact with two teenagers during separate flights last year. Benecke, who was stationed in Alaska, faces up to two years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a year of supervised release. (Joseph Barron/U.S. Air Force)
An Army chief warrant officer who was stationed in Alaska has pleaded guilty after inappropriately touching two teenagers during commercial flights last year.
James Benecke, 42, entered the plea Wednesday to one charge of abusive sexual contact, according to court records filed in the federal court for the western district of Washington.
Prosecutors accused Benecke of putting his hands on a 16-year-old girl’s thigh on a red-eye flight from Anchorage to Seattle on April 12 last year. They also said he touched an 18-year-old woman’s leg with his leg and later his pinky, then slid his hand up her thigh on a flight from Dallas to Seattle on June 12.
Benecke initially denied the allegations, saying he is a “big guy” who spreads out on planes and that any contact was accidental, court records said.
In his plea agreement, Benecke admitted that his actions were sexual in nature and carried out with the intent to abuse and harass.
The court dropped a second count of abusive sexual contact against Benecke as part of the agreement.
Benecke is assigned to the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a statement from the 11th Airborne Division said Monday. He was arrested in July 2023.
Benecke faces a maximum of two years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to one year of supervision upon release, though it’s unlikely he would receive that sentence under a plea agreement. He is scheduled to be back in court for sentencing on July 17.
Some 62 cases of sexual misconduct aboard aircraft occurred in the first six months of 2023, said a statement in August from the U.S. attorney’s office for the western district of Washington, which tried Benecke.
The number is up from 27 such cases investigated by the FBI in 2018, the statement said.
“Federal prison is the destination for those convicted of sexual abuse on an aircraft,” Tessa Gorman, U.S. attorney for the district, said in the statement.
