Naked traveler from SC shoved underwear in TSA worker’s face, feds say. He gets prison
An airport traveler stripped naked and shoved his underwear in a Transportation Security Administration worker’s face, prosecutors said.
Now, nearly two years after the South Carolina man is accused of displaying the “lewd” behavior at the Indianapolis International Airport, he pleaded guilty to “interference with security screening personnel and assault of a federal officer.” He’s ordered to serve nearly three years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
McClatchy News reached out to the law office for two attorneys representing the man, identified as 38-year-old George Stevens. A person who answered the phone had no comment.
“The entirety of Stevens’ lewd assault occurred in full view of the traveling public, including families with small children, who were attempting to navigate the security checkpoint and get to their flights,” prosecutors wrote in a Feb. 25 news release.
SC man accused of disrupting security
The case dates to July 15, 2023, when cameras reportedly captured Stevens going through security at the Indiana airport.
“The machine displayed an alarm indicating that additional screening of his chest, groin, and buttocks was required,” prosecutors wrote. “A Transportation Security Officer (‘TSO’) requested that Stevens step aside for a pat-down search. Stevens complied with the initial request and continued to comply while the TSO patted down his chest. However, when the TSO began patting down his outer and inner groin area, Stevens called the TSO a ‘freak’ approximately 4 times.”
The officer called in a supervisor, who believed Stevens was intoxicated. Stevens still didn’t follow TSA instructions, and officials closed two screening lanes as airport police made their way to the checkpoint, federal officials wrote in their release and a criminal complaint.
“Stevens became agitated and stated, ‘I don’t have nothing’ and ‘what do you want to see?’” prosecutors said. “Stevens then pulled his jeans and underwear to his ankles and exposed his bare buttocks and genitals to the TSOs and the passengers in the vicinity.”
After a police officer arrived, Stevens allegedly “continued to disrobe by removing his jeans and placing them over the supervisor’s shoulder, removing his underwear and forcibly pressing it into the supervisor’s face, and then throwing the underwear at the supervisor.”
Eventually, prosecutors said Stevens was “completely naked.” He’s accused of approaching the TSA supervisor before he was arrested.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office didn’t list a hometown for Stevens. A court document shows he was sentenced to serve 33 months in prison in a facility “as close as possible to Laurens, South Carolina,” a roughly 35-mile drive southeast from Greenville. He then faces three years of supervised release.
“Let this message be heard far and wide; the lewd and violent behavior towards security staff demonstrated by Mr. Stevens in this case will not be tolerated in this district, and it will be prosecuted to the fullest extent,” John E. Childress, acting U.S. attorney for the district, wrote in the release.
