{"id":294522,"date":"2026-06-03T15:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294522\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:33:08","slug":"newport-man-allegedly-touched-girl-16-on-flight-from-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294522\/","title":{"rendered":"Newport man allegedly touched girl, 16, on flight from Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

PROVIDENCE \u2013 A Newport<\/a> man is facing federal charges after he allegedly repeatedly touched a 16-year-old girl during a flight from Florida to Rhode Island last year, court filings show.<\/p>\n

James F. Brugman, 54, was charged with abusive sexual contact and simple assault following the alleged incident onboard a Breeze Airways flight from Tampa to Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport<\/a> in Warwick<\/a> on Nov. 17, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, Brugman, during the flight, intentionally placed his hand on the inner thigh of a 16-year-old female passenger, kissed her hand, and rubbed her leg, all without her permission,\u201d Adam Hopkins, a special agent and federal air marshal with the Federal Air Marshal Service, wrote in an affidavit.<\/p>\n

Brugman was arrested on May 27 and appeared that day in US District Court in Providence, and was released on conditions, court records show.<\/p>\n

Get Rhode Island News Alerts<\/p>\n

Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday.<\/p>\n

An attorney listed for Brugman did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

According to the affidavit, Brugman and the teenager \u2013 who traveled alone \u2013 were seated next to one another in a two-seat row onboard an Airbus A220-300 for the two-hour-and-44-minute flight.<\/p>\n

In an interview two days later, the teen told Hopkins that Brugman \u201cinitiated repeated, unwanted interactions,\u201d and had boarded the aircraft \u201cappearing to stumble and was very loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was also excessively talkative, often repeating stories and forgetting that he had already told them,\u201d Hopkins wrote.<\/p>\n

The teen said Brugman repeatedly asked her about her age, \u201cexpressing disbelief that she was 16 years old and insisting she was older,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite [the teen] informing him multiple times that she was 16, Brugman continued to engage her in sexually charged conversation, asking inappropriate personal questions,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Brugman \u201cmade repeated unsolicited and unwanted physical contact with [the teen], including touching her hand, leg, and upper thigh,\u201d Hopkins wrote. At one point, Brugman allegedly \u201cplaced his hand flat on her thigh, with his fingers curved down around the inside of her inner thigh,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n

The teen also told Hopkins that Brugman took out his cell phone and scrolled through pictures, and stopped on one \u201cdepicting a female wearing a white shirt, short blue plaid skirt, and underwear, taken from a low angle beneath the skirt,\u201d according to the filing. He also stopped on an image of \u201ca male and female having what appeared to be sexual intercourse,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Brugman allegedly offered to give the girl a ride after the flight and \u201ctold her to find him in Rhode Island if she was ever there,\u201d Hopkins wrote. The teen reported \u201cBrugman continued to stare at her as she walked toward baggage claim after the flight, further contributing to her distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teen \u201cdescribed that she felt scared and uncomfortable throughout the flight,\u201d and after meeting her mother at the airport \u201cbroke down and cried,\u201d the affidavit states. The two then reported what happened to the Rhode Island Airport Police, Hopkins wrote, adding the teen said she did not report the incident during the flight because \u201cBrugman repeatedly claimed to be a good person, and she did not want to make him angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopkins also interviewed \u201cmultiple witnesses\u201d who were onboard the flight, including one who described Brugman as \u201cbeing very loud, \u2018pretty loose,\u2019 and possibly high or drunk, sounding like a \u2018dirty old man,\u2019\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Two of the other passengers became concerned when they heard Brugman ask the teen if she had a ride at the end of the flight, and one \u201cwas bothered enough by Brugman\u2019s conduct that he considered taking a picture of Brugman, but he ultimately decided against it,\u201d Hopkins wrote.<\/p>\n

According to court records, Brugman\u2019s case is due back in court on Monday for a status hearing.<\/p>\n

Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROVIDENCE \u2013 A Newport man is facing federal charges after he allegedly repeatedly touched a 16-year-old girl during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,13075,37763,3577,124132,124133],"class_list":["post-294522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-interstate-95","tag-rhode-island","tag-sign","tag-warwick-r-i","tag-warwick-t-f-green-international-airport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}