Sex Offender Gropes Plane Passenger En Route to Newark: Feds

A registered sex offender from New York is accused of groping a passenger on board a plane bound for Newark Airport, prosecutors say. 

Rockland County resident Yoel Oberlander, 35, was sitting next to a woman on an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Newark when he touched her breast as she was trying to sleep, according to a criminal complaint. 

She said she tried to turn away in her seat but he kept grabbing her, prosecutors say. Finally, she switched seats when her mother, also seated next to her, awoke. They then called for help. 

This is Oberlander's third sex offense arrest. He was convicted of abusing an 11-year-old girl in 2002 and was arrested for trespassing at a children's sleepaway camp in 2012. 

No one would speak with NBC 4 New York at Oberlander's home in Monsey Friday.

He faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the latest federal sex abuse charge.

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