The TSA tables have turned!
A 59-year-old Florida woman stands accused of groping a female TSA agent while going through airport security — though she says she was just sticking up for herself.
A video of the incident shows passenger Carol Jean Price putting down her bags dramatically and grabbing a TSA supervisor in what appears to be the crotch area.
Price claims an agent grabbed her breasts and crotch during a screening at Southwest Florida International Airport, and that she was just demonstrating the aggressive treatment, when she was caught on camera.
"She did not touch the supervisor as intrusively as she was touched," Price's lawyer John Mills said, according to Florida ABC affiliate WZVN.
Agents who witnessed the incident told WINK TV at the time that Price became upset after being selected for an extra screening, and asked to speak to a supervisor.
It was then that she reached down and “demonstrated and grabbed the leg of the agent and the crotch area as she claimed had happened to her."
Mills says the incident was more than the typical TSA-passenger conflict — it was personal.
Price is herself a former TSA agent, and believes the incident was a targeted assault because the two women knew each other.
"She's obviously been through training and knew this lady," Mills said.
Price was removed from the flight to Ohio, which Mills said she was taking to attend her brother's funeral. She now faces misdemeanor battery charges.
"The pat down was conducted correctly in accordance with our procedures," the TSA said in a statement, according to WZVN. “Violence against our officers, who work every day to keep the traveling public safe, is unacceptable."
A jury is set to decide on the case in July.
"It was a customer complaint of an extremely inappropriate search," Mills said.
"Ms. Price just wants her name cleared," said Mills.
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