Passenger asks to file complaint against TSA agent, instead is arrested

Discussion in 'United States' started by Anders Hoveland, Apr 14, 2015.

  1. Anders Hoveland

    Anders Hoveland Banned

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2011
    Messages:
    11,044
    Likes Received:
    138
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Anyone here get frustrated at those pesky TSA agents at the airport? Well here's one more reason to fret: Apparently they have the ability to get people sent to jail for no good reason, with no repercussions for themselves.

    The following story singles out Charles Kieser, who works as a supervisor for the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport.

    Roger Vanderklok had the misfortune of going through Kieser's security-screening area at 8 a.m. January 26, 2013, in Terminal B.

    Vanderklok, 57, is a Philadelphia architect who runs half-marathons. Twice a month, he flies around the country for weekend races.

    On this day, he was headed to Miami. In his carry-on bag was a packet of PowerBars and a heart-monitoring watch. When the bag went through the X-ray scanner, the items looked suspicious to a TSA agent whom Kieser supervises.

    For the next 30 minutes, screeners checked the bag several times. Vanderklok told them that a tube-shaped case in the bag contained his watch. Then he was asked if his bag contained "organic matter." Vanderklok said no, as he thought "organic matter" meant fruits or vegetables.

    PowerBars, which contain milk, grain and sugar, are considered "organic matter" and can resemble a common explosive. Terrorists often use a small electronic device, like a watch, to detonate the explosive. Hence the agent's concern.

    Once the items were deemed harmless, Vanderklok says, he told Kieser that if someone had only told him what "organic matter" meant, he could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. Kieser then became confrontational. Vanderklok says he calmly asked to file a complaint. He then waited while someone was supposedly retrieving the proper form.

    Instead, Kieser summoned the Philadelphia Police. Vanderklok was taken to an airport holding cell, and his personal belongings - including his phone - were confiscated while police "investigated" him.

    Vanderklok was detained for three hours in the holding cell, missing his plane. Then he was handcuffed, taken to the 18th District at 55th and Pine and placed in another cell.

    He says that no one - neither the police officers at the airport nor the detectives at the 18th - told him why he was there. He didn't find out until he was arraigned at 2 a.m. that he was being charged with "threatening the placement of a bomb" and making "terroristic threats."

    Vanderklok's outrageous odyssey finally ended at 4 a.m., when his wife paid 10 percent of his $40,000 bail.

    When many people read this story, their first thought is that Vanderklok had to have said or done something outrageous for others to respond with such alarm. In fact, Kieser said as much at Vanderklok's trial on April 8, 2013.

    Under oath, Kieser told the court that he had been monitoring Vanderklok's interaction with the bag screener because "I saw a passenger becoming agitated. Hands were in the air. And it's something we deal with regularly. But I don't let it go on on my checkpoint."

    Kieser intervened, he said, and that's when Vanderklok complained that the screening was "delaying him". While he said this, he "had both hands with fingers extended up toward the ceiling up in the air at the time and shaking them."

    Vanderklok also "put his finger in my face. And he said, 'Let me tell you something. I'll bring a bomb through here any day I want.' And he said you'll never find it."

    Vanderklok repeated the aggressive finger-pointing two more times, Kieser testified.

    But here's the thing: Airport surveillance videos show nothing of the sort.

    Throughout the search, Vanderklok appears calm. His laptop computer is tucked under his arms and his hands are clasped in front of him the entire time. Without any fuss, he follows TSA agents when they move from one part of the screening area to another. He even smiles a little.

    Not once does he raise his hands. Not once does he point a finger in Kieser's face. If anyone is becoming agitated, the video shows, it is Kieser.

    Neither Kieser nor his colleagues appear alarmed about the bomb threat Vanderklok has allegedly made. They chat and laugh with one another behind a desk, check their cellphones. One sips a soda, another wanders around the area, straightening bins. Two more assist an elderly couple with their wheelchairs.

    They do not appear to do anything suggesting there's looming danger.

    And here's another thing: Kieser alleged that Vanderklok told him, "I'll bring a bomb through here any day I want. And . . . you'll never find it." But that's not what Kieser told police, according to the report taken by the responding officer. The report reads that Vanderklok, frustrated, told Kieser, "Anybody could bring a bomb in here and nobody would know."

    Assuming that alternate report was true, it would appear that, at the very least, Kieser twisted what Vanderklok said.

    But Vanderklok says he never made any statement of the sort, nothing whatsoever about a "bomb".

    Even talking about it now, two years later, rattles him. "I was scared to death. I have never been arrested in my life, never had handcuffs put on," he says. "Throughout the night, I was in a dark place; no one knew where I was. I thought, 'I could fall off the face of the earth right now, and no one would know it.' "

    While Vanderklok was worrying, so was his wife, Eleanor. When her husband travels, his routine is to call her when he boards the plane, when he lands and when he arrives at his hotel. This time, no calls. Nor did he respond to the increasingly panicked messages she left him.

    She called his Miami hotel. He'd never checked in. She called the airline. He'd never boarded the plane. She called the city's hospitals. He wasn't in any of them. Finally, she called 9-1-1.

    "I was so scared. I didn't know what to do with myself," says Eleanor Vanderklok. "A million scenarios go through your head."

    She was waiting for an officer to arrive at the couple's Center City home to take her report when the phone rang. A police officer told her that her husband had been arrested and was awaiting arraignment. When she learned why, she was shocked.

    "My husband has been on planes hundreds of times," she says. "Not once was there a problem. This was out of the blue."

    At trial, Kieser was the first and only witness to testify. Municipal Judge Felice Stack acquitted Vanderklok of all charges within minutes of hearing Kieser's testimony. Vanderklok's lawyer, Thomas Malone, didn't get a chance to question the Philadelphia police officers and detectives who were involved in Vanderklok's arrest. Nor did he get to show the surveillance video that contradicted Kieser.

    "The police at the airport never even questioned Mr. Vanderklok. They just detained him," says Malone. "The detectives at the 18th [District] also never spoke with him. He was charged based on a single allegation by one TSA employee."

    Last week, Malone filed a suit on Vanderklok's behalf against the TSA, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that Vanderklok was willfully deprived of his liberty because he had the gall to say that he wanted to file a complaint.

    The city and the TSA declined to comment on the case. So allow me to.

    Vanderklok's arrest appears to have been payback from a TSA supervisor who didn't like the trouble one of the passengers was giving him. But not only did this supervisor swear under oath to things that were not true, he was willing to stick to his story even if it meant an innocent man could go to jail. But in all fairness, it can be rather difficult for an officer in law enforcement to admit they lied, when that could get them in big trouble. Much easier to stick to the first story, no matter what.

    I don't know if that necessarily makes Kieser a bad man. But it sure doesn't make him a very good TSA employee. He is still working at his same job.
    So if you ever happen to go through Philadelphia International Airport, be sure you don't do anything to (*)(*)(*)(*) off any of the TSA agents. :wink:
     
  2. Alucard

    Alucard New Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2015
    Messages:
    7,828
    Likes Received:
    41
    Trophy Points:
    0
    This whole incident makes me scared to go to an airport.
     
  3. fireballfl

    fireballfl New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2015
    Messages:
    443
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    0
    It is freaky when you think about it and it is all in the name to "protect people". It really does take your breath away when you think about it.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Fortunately, I am lucky, I have not had to fly anywhere.... I keep my a$$ in Florida where it belongs. LOL
     
  4. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2017
    Messages:
    34,613
    Likes Received:
    11,200
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Customs officer admits assault in airport 'rape table' case

    A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer has admitted his role in using a "rape table" to haze two colleagues at Newark Liberty International Airport.

    Tito Catota pleaded guilty on Monday to forcibly assaulting, impeding, intimidating and interfering with the victims while they were engaged in their duties.

    The 38-year-old admitted helping grab the two men and holding them down on what were known as "rape tables" in the Passenger Enforcement Rover Team office at the airport in 2016 and 2017.
    The victims claimed the officers simulated sex acts on them.

    Catota faces up to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced.

    Two other officers, 40-year-old Parmenio Perez and 32-year-old Michael Papagni, have been indicted and maintain their innocence.
    http://www.nydailynews.com/newswire...ult-airport-rape-table-case-article-1.4026067

    There's two terms you always want to see together: rape table and passenger enforcement area.
     

Share This Page