FBI: Idaho man slaps crying boy on plane, charged with assault
ATLANTA (AP) — A 60-year-old Idaho man has been charged with simple assault for allegedly slapping a 2-year-old boy aboard an Atlanta-bound flight.
In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, FBI special agent Daron Cheney says Joe Rickey Hundley, of Hayden Idaho, slapped the 2-year-old boy during a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis on Feb. 8.
The child's mother, 33-year-old Jessica Bennett, of Minneapolis, told authorities the boy was crying as the plane prepared for landing. Bennett says Hundley was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye. She says Hundley used a racial epithet while demanding her to quiet the boy.
Hundley "told her to shut that ('N word') baby up," Cheney said in the affidavit. "Ms. Bennett received assistance from several people on the plane, including male passenger Todd Wooten." Cheney said.
Wooten was seated rows in front of Bennett and said he came to help after he heard derogatory language being used behind him, according to court documents. Bennett said the infant began crying louder after he was slapped.
District attorney officials say Hundley was not taken into custody, however he was charged with assault.
"We think that it is important to let the case develop, and we'll see how it all comes out," Hundley's attorney Marcia Shein said Friday.
On Sunday, Shein said that Hundley will plead not guilty.
KBOI 2 News learned that Hundley has been suspended from his job at Uni-tech Composites and Structures, pending the outcome of the investigation.
In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, FBI special agent Daron Cheney says Joe Rickey Hundley, of Hayden Idaho, slapped the 2-year-old boy during a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis on Feb. 8.
The child's mother, 33-year-old Jessica Bennett, of Minneapolis, told authorities the boy was crying as the plane prepared for landing. Bennett says Hundley was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye. She says Hundley used a racial epithet while demanding her to quiet the boy.
Hundley "told her to shut that ('N word') baby up," Cheney said in the affidavit. "Ms. Bennett received assistance from several people on the plane, including male passenger Todd Wooten." Cheney said.
Wooten was seated rows in front of Bennett and said he came to help after he heard derogatory language being used behind him, according to court documents. Bennett said the infant began crying louder after he was slapped.
District attorney officials say Hundley was not taken into custody, however he was charged with assault.
"We think that it is important to let the case develop, and we'll see how it all comes out," Hundley's attorney Marcia Shein said Friday.
On Sunday, Shein said that Hundley will plead not guilty.
KBOI 2 News learned that Hundley has been suspended from his job at Uni-tech Composites and Structures, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Here is my question? What would all you good folks be saying about this incident if the baby was white? Just curious.
@souptonuts --- I think ALL people are primarily concerned that a baby was assaulted by an adult, AND secondarily as concerned and shocked as Todd Wooten was about the verbal assault/abuse that preceded the physical assault.
I am however curious of what race JR Hundley belongs to. Â
KBOI 2 News learned that Hundley has been suspended from his job at Uni-tech Composites and Structures, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Why would he be suspended from his job? What does his job have to do with what he is alleged to have done?Â
His company (which are made up of people) just want to jump on the "I'm not a racist bigot bandwagon" to prove they aren't racists when in fact most people actually are racists and judgmental... Â
This guy just plain said and did what many people on that plane were actually thinking...
Who do you think you're fooling anyway...?
@Postone It is a pretty good guess that his coworkers and customers do not want to be around somebody so unstable as to assault a baby. Suspension from work for the pending of a felony investigation is SOP in most all labor contracts, work visas, and even military enlistments.
Employers have an obligation to protect coworkers AND their customer base/shareholders from a potential psychopath.Â
@peace And to make the leap you're making sir, makes you nothing short of a moron!
Poor little babe was probably teething AND had ear drum pain from descending for the landing. I fail to see how slapping a crying baby in the eye could possibly diminish any pre-existing agony. Â Â
What a turd. Someone needs to slap the old guy around. I volunteer.
@OregonOrator---Â then you should work for Delta!
Other reports say the assailant had been drinking, so he'll fall back on claiming he was too drunk to know what he was saying. Â
Nah...booze just takes the brakes off whatever can of worms is in the brain already. Â
I'd rather travel with a grumpy baby than some old drunk any day.
@Ward Payne ---but not on an international flight, the drunks usually pass out before the delta airlines steward(s)ess have to slap them unconscious.
60 yr old racist should count his blessings that an an air marshal wasn't on board to pump him full of lead. Â Slapping kids on an aircraft post 9/11 sounds like terrorism in my book.
@J. Burton Good thing you don't make the laws!
You watch the old guy will cry my medication made me do it. Instead of he's just an old bigot !! man what a tool.