Pilot arrested for standing naked in front of hotel window wins $300K in wrongful arrest lawsuit
Back in September 2018, United Airlines pilot Andrew Collins was arrested after he was spotted standing naked in front of his hotel window. His room was on the tenth floor of the hotel overlooking a terminal of Denver’s International Airport. The pilot always maintained that he didn’t realize he was visible to onlookers outside his window “when he partially opened the curtains of his hotel room.”
Collins was arrested on indecent exposure charges after “exposing himself” in front of a window at The Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport the morning of Sept. 20, 2018, according to a probable cause statement filed by police and obtained by McClatchy news group last year. ~ Miami Herald
Court documents revealed that airport employees in the terminal below said that they witnessed Collins touching himself as he stood in front of the window. The pilot pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge. As a result of his charges though, Collins was suspended for six months by United Airlines, according to KDVR.
Collins told the media that although he later realized that airport employees could see him, he could not see the terminal from his window. “Some witnesses said I was dancing, gyrating and waving” from the 10th-floor room. “I’m completely innocent. It’s really unfortunate that it happened at all.”
In March, the courts threw out the charges against Collins and decreed that the pilot was wrongfully arrested. The City of Denver has since agreed to pay Collins $300,000 to settle his wrongful arrest lawsuit against the City.
The Miami Herald shared a press release distributed by Collins’ lawyer which stated that the Hotel Westin “should better protect its guests’ privacy and warn them about the openness of the rooms’ interiors.”
“My family has had to deal with things they had nothing to do with” said Collins. “I have three boys who serve in the United States Air Force. They’ve had to listen to the jokes of their superiors about their father doing things in front of windows. My wife was a 30-year flight attendant for United Airlines and she has to go to work to listen to these same comments.”
Collins, who hails from Leesburg, Virginia, said that he’ll be donating a portion of his settlement award to the Innocence Project, “having known now what it is like to be falsely accused.”
For more on the story, see the video below which shows police confronting and arresting the naked pilot.
~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
