Delta employee groped woman flying home from Taylor Swift concert, feds say. ‘Predator’

A woman’s “once-in-a-lifetime” trip to see Taylor Swift perform on her “Eras Tour” in Phoenix last year was tainted by a Delta Air Lines employee accused of sexually assaulting her on her flight home, according to federal prosecutors.

Duane Brick groped the 24-year-old woman sitting next to him in the window seat as she seemed to be asleep on the Delta flight to Seattle on March 20, 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.

A passenger in the aisle seat in the same row witnessed the assault and reported it to the flight crew, prosecutors said.

The woman “had saved her money up for months and traveled to Phoenix, Arizona all so that she could catch a glimpse of her hero performing,” prosecutors wrote.

“A moment that should have been filled with elation, inspiration, and lightheartedness” after seeing Swift was “fleeting” as the woman’s “reality took a dark turn after she was seated next to Mr. Brick,” according to a sentencing memorandum.

This isn’t the first time Brick groped someone on a plane, according to prosecutors, who said he repeatedly touched a man on a Delta flight five years earlier in 2018.

Brick, 53, a former longtime Delta mechanic, pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact on March 5 in connection with assaulting the woman, McClatchy News previously reported.

On June 24, Brick was sentenced to six months in prison on the charge, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced in a news release.

“This was a serious and frightening crime…. He was clearly a predator,” U.S. District Judge James H. Chun said during his sentencing hearing.

According to Brick’s defense counsel, he was an alcoholic and completed a treatment program several months following the assault in November 2023.

“This was the unfortunate rock bottom he hit and immediately realized he needed professional help with his alcoholism,” one of his attorneys, Cristine Beckwith, said in a news release.

“Due to his accountability and treatment success we asked the court to take a restorative justice approach. Lifetime consequences for Mr. Brick were inevitable,” Beckwith said, adding that he lost his career of 29 years and is facing a “substantial civil lawsuit” from the woman.

“The Court did not follow” his counsel’s recommendation to sentence him to electronic home monitoring, Beckwith said.

Brick and Delta are also facing a lawsuit from the woman over the sexual assault. She is seeking economic, exemplary and non-economic damages, a complaint filed March 28 shows.

The civil case is set to go to trial in King County, Washington, on March 31, 2025.

The woman’s attorney, Mark Lindquist, told McClatchy News they are both “grateful to the F.B.I. and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for treating sexual assault cases with the seriousness and sensitivity they deserve.”

“We are now focused on holding Delta Air Lines accountable,” Lindquist said.

Delta declined to comment on the pending litigation in a statement to McClatchy News on June 25 and confirmed Brick no longer works for the company.

“Delta has zero tolerance for unlawful conduct and will work with law enforcement entities to that end,” the airline said.

‘When he was caught, he blamed her’

On the March 20, 2023, flight, the woman, who prosecutors said had anxiety while flying, took anti-anxiety medication and fell asleep while next to Brick.

She then “awoke to find Brick had grabbed her hand and placed and pressed it on his crotch” and “was frozen in shock,” prosecutors said.

Brick began tapping on her “face, head, arm, and breast” to see if she was sleeping, and then “reached under her shirt and bra and groped her breast,” according to prosecutors.

Brick further assaulted her, trying to “put his hands down her trousers,” leading her to push him away and tell him “no,” prosecutors said.

“She was in total shock,” prosecutors wrote.

After flight attendants were alerted to the assault, Brick told them that he might have accidentally touched the woman due to her “weight and size,” according to the sentencing memorandum.

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Grace Zoller said the assault was “intentional, methodical, and prolonged.”

“He knew she was not consenting and when he was caught, he blamed her,” Zoller said in the release.

‘Delta failed in multiple ways’

After flight attendants were informed of the assault, the woman told them she wanted them to call authorities, prosecutors said.

The flight crew is accused of failing to call law enforcement over to the plane upon landing.

“Brick, as an airline employee, was allowed to leave the plane quickly when it landed at Seattle,” prosecutors said.

Lindquist told McClatchy News that “Delta needs to do a better job of training employees how to prevent and properly address in-flight sexual assaults” and that “in this case, Delta failed in multiple ways,” he said.

In 2018, Brick was “reprimanded” by Delta over how he “continuously” touched a man next to him on another flight while appearing intoxicated, resulting in Delta issuing him a “corrective action notice,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.

“Just as Mr. Brick should have learned from this prior experience, Delta should have as well,” Lindquist said. “Neither did.”

According to Delta, the airline worked with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office during Brick’s prosecution.

Meanwhile, Beckwith said Brick “is ready to accept what the court imposed and do his best to keep improving to make amends.”

His sentencing will be followed by five years of supervised release, according to prosecutors.

If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.

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