Ex-TSA agent convicted of tricking woman into baring breasts at Los Angeles airport

First, the 22-year-old Transportation Security Agency officer told a woman at Los Angeles International Airport that he had to look down her shirt for a security inspection.

Then Johnathon Lomeli said he had to look down her pants as well, the Associated Press reported.

Finally, in an elevator on the way to a private screening room, he told her to lift her shirt and bra to expose her breasts for a final inspection — and complimented her body, according to the AP.

Lomeli, now an ex-TSA agent, was convicted Friday of false imprisonment in the June 2019 incident, a state Department of Justice news release says.

He had pleaded no contest to the charge, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

Lomeli was sentenced to two years of felony probation, 60 days in county jail and 52 classes to address sexual compulsion. He also is banned from security work and may have to pay restitution to the woman, the release says.

“We all have the right to be treated with dignity and respect in all places. And no one is entitled to use a position of power to violate those rights,” said Attorney General Xavier Becerra in the release.

“Why can’t some men absorb that simple truth?” Becerra said. “This is 2021, not 1921.”

In a statement at the time of Lomeli’s arrest in February, the TSA called his actions “unacceptable and an affront to the hardworking and committed members of our workforce,” the Associated Press reported.

The incidents took place outside the primary screening areas after the woman, who had lost her identification while visiting Los Angeles, had already been searched by a female TSA agent, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

Lomeli was no longer with the agency by the time of his arrest at his El Monte home in February, KTLA reported.

This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Ex-TSA agent convicted of tricking woman into baring breasts at Los Angeles airport."