Florida
Woman's Sex Toy Lawsuit Against
Delta Goes to Appeals
Renee Koutsouradis
of Tarpon Springs, Fla., was on a Delta Air Lines jet awaiting
takeoff from Dallas when her name was called over the loudspeaker
and she was pulled from the plane. Something was buzzing in her
luggage. When taken to the taxiway, she told a Delta security
agent that the buzzing was likely coming from a sex toy she and
her husband had just bought during their trip to Las Vegas.
She was then
ordered to remove the toy, hold it up and remove its batteries,
all in full view of some other passengers on her flight. She claims
a baggage handler then licked his lips and made sexually inappropriate
comments as other Delta employees laughed.
Renee has
suffered nightmares and panic attacks and has been treated for
post-traumatic stress disorder because of the incident. It says
she was most disturbed by the "offensive and outrageous" comments
made by the Delta baggage handler about her sex life. "
She felt that
in order for this to not happen to someone else she was going
to have to stand up to the airline," said Craig Berman, Koutsouradis's
attorney from St. Petersburg, Fla. "She is facing further embarrassment
to correct wrongdoing."
Koutsouradis
is seeking unspecified damages from Delta. Because it's in federal
court. Last October, the judge dismissed it, saying federal aviation
laws protect airline workers from lawsuits while they are performing
their jobs.
Koutsouradis'
attorneys say the law should not have applied to this case. "Obviously,
making sexual comments is not an airline service," Berman said.
"You can handle bags without offering a sexual service."
