A former NFL lineman urinated on an elderly woman during a flight from Boston to Ireland – and “emptied his entire bladder for approximately 20 seconds,” after which the plane had to turn around, officials said on Monday.
Former Detroit Lions offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus, a 40-year-old resident of Wakefield, Massachusetts, appeared in East Boston District Court on Monday where he pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct, interfering with flight crew and resisting arrest.
Delta Flight 154 left Logan at 12:12 a.m. local time on Sunday, nearly four hours late, before turning around and landing back in Boston at 2:33 a.m., according to airline data published on FlightAware.
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According to court documents, Cherilus was allegedly drunk and unhappy with the 3D seating position he had been assigned.
Then, as the plane flew 36,000 feet over Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cherilus approached a 78-year-old woman in seat 4C when he “fully exposed his genitals and began urinating on an elderly woman, emptying his entire bladder within approximately 20 seconds,” according to court documents.
Due to this “outrageous behavior” of the 6-foot-6, 280-pound suspect, “the entire flight crew experienced extreme shock, alarm and fear for their safety,” court documents state.
Witnesses tried to intervene “by grabbing his hands from his genitals and demanding that he return to his seat,” the documents say.
Cherilus then confronted a 68-year-old man in seat 3D, “began to fight over the seat” and “struck him with his right hand,” court documents say.
The action only ended when Cherilus returned to his seat 3D, “where he fainted,” the documents state.
Delta called for help because of “an unruly passenger who urinated on another passenger on board,” the Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.
When Flight 154 arrived at Terminal E, state police and Customs and Border Protection agents boarded and confronted Cherilus, the MSP said.
“Police officers verbally ordered Cherilus to exit the aircraft, but he became angry and refused to cooperate,” MSP said.
“Law enforcement officers eventually escorted Cherilus to the jetway and arrested him for disorderly conduct and disrupting the flight crew.”
Delta confirmed the police version and said Flight 154 had to return to Logan “due to an unruly customer” who was “met by police.”
“Delta has zero tolerance for unlawful conduct and will cooperate with law enforcement authorities to this end,” the airline said.
“We apologize to our customers for the travel delay.”
On Monday, he did not answer reporters’ questions outside the courtroom.
But in a social media post, Cherilus seemed to attribute his erratic behavior to a bad reaction to sleeping pills.
“The flight was unexpectedly delayed by about four hours,” he wrote.
“In preparation for the planned night flight, I took a sleeping pill that I do not normally take, which led to behavior that was not in keeping with my character. For this, I would like to apologize to the passengers and the flight crew.”
Cherilus played nine NFL seasons, five with the Detroit Lions, two years with the Indianapolis Colts and two more with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played in 132 games, 116 of which were starts.
At Boston College, Cherilus was selected to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference second team in 2007 as the blind side protector for quarterback and conference player Matt Ryan, who went on to have a 15-season NFL career.
Ryan was selected number 3 in the 2008 draft, his college teammate Cherilus was selected number 17.
– with Brittany Kubicko and Yasmeen Persaud, NBC
