US Airways Plane Headed to Vegas Diverted to Portland

[WCT]

Published: February 1, 1993
A former flight attendant has filed suit against the Boston Bruins, claiming she was sexually assaulted by a player on a charter flight in 1991 while another player took her picture.

Connie von Hundertmark, 46, sued the team for $5 million in Queens County Supreme Court in New York, The Boston Sunday Herald reported today.

The newspaper said Bruins Coach Brian Sutter eluded a process server who tried to deliver the subpoena Saturday at the Long Island Marriott Hotel, where the team was staying for a game against the Islanders on Saturday night. Sutter declined to comment. Talking to Neely

Von Hundertmark says that she was talking with Cam Neely on the flight from Pittsburgh to Boston on May 12, 1991, when her blouse was ripped open and her breast fondled by another Bruins player she cannot identify. She says a third unnamed player took a photograph.

Neely has said he does not remember any such incident.

"If management had taken a walk back there and looked around, they would have seen that something was going on," von Hundertmark said. "There were enough of them there to do that. But no one did anything."

Von Hundertmark's suit names the Bruins and the team owner, Delaware North Companies. She charges that Delaware North "breached the duty to properly supervise its employees and were negligent in allowing its players to become inebriated." Heavy Drinking

Von Hundertmark said more than 170 cans of beer and as many as 50 small bottles of liquor were consumed on the flight.

Company and team officials could not be reached for comment today.

Von Hundertmark said she was "injured and suffered great humiliation, distress and pain and suffering," resulting in the loss of her job with USAir, where she had worked for 22 years. She filed a $2 million discrimination suit against the airline in October.

USAir claims von Hundertmark was dismissed for "several violations of Federal air regulations and also some improper conduct in uniform."

"I wish the individuals would be named, from the man who grabbed me to the man who took the photograph," von Hundertmark said.

So what was the outcome?