A former NFL lineman urinated on an elderly woman — “emptying his entire bladder for approximately 20 seconds” — during a Boston-to-Ireland flight, forcing the plane to turn around, officials said on Monday.
Former Detroit Lions offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus, a 40-year-old resident of Wakefield, Massachusetts, appeared on Monday at East Boston District Court where he pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing a flight crew and resisting arrest.
Delta Flight 154 had left Logan at 12.12am local time on Sunday, nearly four hours late, before it doubled back and landed back in Boston at 2.33am, according to airline data published on FlightAware.
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Cherilus was allegedly drunk and unhappy with his assignment in seat 3D, according to court documents.
Then while the plane was 36,000 feet above Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cherilus approached a 78-year-old woman in seat 4C when he “fully exposed his genitals and began urinating on an elderly female, emptying his entire bladder for approximately 20 seconds”, according to the court documents.
Due to this “egregious behavior” by the 198cm, 127kg suspect, the “entire flight experienced extreme shock, alarm and were in fear for their safety”, court papers said.
Witnesses tried to intervene “by grabbing his hands from his genitals and demanding that he return to his seat”, the documents said.
Cherilus then confronted a 68-year-old man in seat 3D and “began arguing over the seat” and “struck him with his right hand”, court papers said.
The action only ended when Cherilus returned to his seat 3D “where he passed out”, according to documents.
Delta had called for help with “an unruly passenger who urinated on another passenger on board”, Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.
When Flight 154 pulled into Terminal E, state police and Customers and Border Patrol agents boarded and confronted Cherilus, the MSP said.
“Troopers verbally commanded Cherilus to leave the plane, but he became irate and uncooperative,” according to MSP.
“Eventually, Troopers escorted Cherilus to the jet bridge and placed him under arrest for Disorderly Conduct and Disturbing a Flight Crew.”
Delta confirmed the police version of events, saying Flight 154 had to return to Logan “due to an unruly customer” who was “met by law enforcement”.
“Delta has zero tolerance (for) unlawful behaviour and will cooperate with law enforcement to that end,” the airline said.
“We apologise to our customers for the delay in their travel.”
He did not answer reporters’ questions outside court on Monday.
But in a social media posting, Cherilus appeared to blame his erratic behaviour on a bad reaction to sleep meds.
“The flight was unexpectedly delayed for approximately four hours,” he wrote.
“In preparation for the expected overnight flight, I took a sleeping medication that I don’t normally use, which resulted in behavior that is not representative of my character, and I would like to apologise to the passengers and flight crew.”
Cherilus played in nine NFL seasons, five with the Detroit Lions, two years with the Indianapolis Colts and two more with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played in 132 games, 116 of them starts.
At Boston College, Cherilus was second team all-Atlantic Coast Conference pick in 2007, as the blind side protector of QB and conference player of the year Matt Ryan, who went on to a 15-season-long NFL career.
Ryan was the No. 3 overall pick of the 2008 draft while his college teammate Cherilus went at No. 17.
– with Brittany Kubicko and Yasmeen Persaud, NBC