This Aug. 23, 2013 photo provided by the Illinois State Police shows Srinivasa Erramilli, of Aurora, Ill. Erramilli, a Chicago-area business traveler convicted of groping a fellow airline passenger while she slept in the seat next to him, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, at federal court in Chicago. (AP Photo/Illinois State Police)
September 11, 2013 - 1:17 AM
CHICAGO - A federal judge in Chicago is scheduled to sentence a frequent business traveller convicted of groping a female passenger during an airline flight while she slept next to him.
Prosecutors want the judge Wednesday to imprison 45-year-old Srinivasa Erramilli (sri-nih-VAH'-suh air-ah-MILL'-ee) for as much as a year and nine months.
Defence lawyers want probation for the Aurora-based software consultant. They argue the married father of two daughters has already suffered public humiliation as a consequence of media coverage.
The victim and her husband were returning to Chicago from a 34th wedding-anniversary trip when the 2011 incident occurred.
At trial, jurors heard testimony Erramilli was convicted in 2002 and given probation after grabbing a woman's breast on a Detroit-bound flight. In 2000, he received two years' probation for a similar incident.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013