A Deering man was sentenced to a year and a half months in prison on Feb. 4 for sexually touching an underage girl on an airplane.
According to court documents, 29-year-old Trayton Ballot was on a three-hour flight from Anchorage to Seattle in January 2025.
The victim, a 17-year-old seated next to him, said that she woke up after Ballot rubbed her inner thigh. The victim told investigators that Ballot appeared to be asleep and she removed his hand. She said that Ballot continued to touch her even after she used a stuffed animal to create a barrier between Ballot’s seat. The victim told her mother, who was sitting in another row, and she directed her daughter to alert a flight attendant who transferred the victim to another seat.
Law enforcement arrested Ballot at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when the flight arrived. He was released on bail the next day with conditions of his release.
On Sept.10, a jury found Ballot guilty of one count of Abusive Sexual Contact.
In court proceedings, Ballot's attorney argued for a more lenient sentence. He argued that the federal government had systematically neglected Indigenous communities like Deering and said imposing more time or conditions that would banish Ballot from the community would contribute to a “justice gap.”
U.S District Judge John Chun sentenced Ballot to 18 months in a federal prison. Ballot will also be on supervised release for 10 years and required to register as a sex offender.
