Company suspends exec charged with slapping toddler on plane
ATLANTA (AP) - The employer of a 60-year-old Idaho executive says it has suspended the man after authorities charged him with slapping a 2-year-old boy aboard a flight to Atlanta.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the parent company of Unitech Composites and Structures in Hayden, Idaho, confirmed Saturday that its president, Joe Rickey Hundley, was suspended pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.
Al Haase, president and CEO of parent company AGC Aerospace and Defense, Composite Group, said in a statement the company is "taking this matter seriously."
Hundley was charged with simple assault after Jessica Bennett, 33, of Minneapolis told authorities he slapped her crying boy in the face and used a racial slur.
An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court by FBI special agent Daron Cheney says Hundley slapped the 2-year-old during a Delta Air flight from Minneapolis on Feb. 8.
The child's mother told authorities the boy was crying as the plane prepared for landing. Bennett says Hundley was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye. She says Hundley used a racial slur while demanding her to quiet the boy.
Hundley "told her to shut that ('N word') baby up," Cheney said in the affidavit. "Ms. Bennett received assistance from several people on the plane, including male passenger Todd Wooten." Cheney said.
Wooten was seated rows in front of Bennett and said he came to help after he heard derogatory language being used behind him, according to court documents. Bennett said the infant began crying louder after he was slapped.
District attorneys officials say Hundley was not taken into custody and it is unclear when the case will go to court.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the parent company of Unitech Composites and Structures in Hayden, Idaho, confirmed Saturday that its president, Joe Rickey Hundley, was suspended pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.
Al Haase, president and CEO of parent company AGC Aerospace and Defense, Composite Group, said in a statement the company is "taking this matter seriously."
Hundley was charged with simple assault after Jessica Bennett, 33, of Minneapolis told authorities he slapped her crying boy in the face and used a racial slur.
An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court by FBI special agent Daron Cheney says Hundley slapped the 2-year-old during a Delta Air flight from Minneapolis on Feb. 8.
The child's mother told authorities the boy was crying as the plane prepared for landing. Bennett says Hundley was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye. She says Hundley used a racial slur while demanding her to quiet the boy.
Hundley "told her to shut that ('N word') baby up," Cheney said in the affidavit. "Ms. Bennett received assistance from several people on the plane, including male passenger Todd Wooten." Cheney said.
Wooten was seated rows in front of Bennett and said he came to help after he heard derogatory language being used behind him, according to court documents. Bennett said the infant began crying louder after he was slapped.
District attorneys officials say Hundley was not taken into custody and it is unclear when the case will go to court.
oops
The n word would not of been used if the plane was segregated
@Bert Yea what are them nazzz thinking that they have the right to fly with real people...
How bad parenting can pay
@Bert So you mamma got paid??
What a POSÂ Â Â I'll slap him!
I would imagine the phones are ringing off the hook at Unitech.
He screwed up royally, you do not just up and hit a 2 year old. The story is a bit short so far and not giving too many details. If the parent had slapped the child in the face, she would probably have been tied up on the aircraft.
For a stranger to slap a child, and call names, especially the president of a major company...not good for the resume' at all.
He thought the baby called him "surely".
President of a multi million dollar company....wonder whos daddy started a composite company in idaho !
@sargerator The guy's name is Joe Rickey -- that right there says something, don't it?  =)
@Sundowner @sargerator Do you mean like the two first names? hahaha. Also from nothern Idaho, Hadyn Lake, kinda short on deversity there.
@old_dollor @sargerator Are you inferring those Aryans...er, Northern Idahoans don't welcome diversity?  Yeah, I think I may have read something about that a while back.  LOL.Â
I was on a plane to Chicago once and there was an older (4 or 5)Â kid behind me on the plane that was trying to learn how to whistle, after about 30 minutes of that I could have slapped him. Thankfully his mother finally listened to me and the guy behind her, and did some parenting.
When planes land, a lot of young children suffer ear pain. Â A lot of adults do, too. Â To lose it like that and to hit a child....I don't know what I would have done or wanted to do in that situation. Â But it might not have been pretty!!!
And why didn't the mother of the child take any disciplinary action against her child? Why do we all have to take action to keep someone else's child from becoming our pain in the butt? I'm sure there's more to this story than has been reported. But then the media always looks for the simple solution! And NO! I am not defending the passenger who did the slapping! But everyone has a threshold which should not be crossed.
@jpk You're kidding right?  What type of disciplinary action would you recommend a parent take "against" a 2 year old child crying from pain and/or discomfort due to the landing of a plane?  I really hope you are not a parent.
@jpk "And why didn't the mother of the child..." With the plane landing there isn't much a mother could do. The child could very well have been crying due to inner ear pain, noise of the flight, or a whole host of issues. If it had been in a grocery store or restaurant I'd be asking the same question. However, confined on a plane, at the end of a 2 hour flight, with a child at an age where they still don't understand that sitting in their seat quietly IS their only option, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
So when you say you were an ex-cop , sheriff I believe, was it for hazzard county ? Go daisy !
Like everyone, including you, I have personal beliefs and KATU rants. What I believe in are basic principles of how to behave in society, not what you imply at all. I obeyed the law and made sure others complied with the law. And I believe Daisy would object to you not capitalizing her name. LOL Â
Oops ....Daisy....crazy for ....
YA ! afterall it was a fully grown 2 year old ...she should have wacked the kid good until it shut up because we ALL know "the beatings will stop when morale improves" ! ...D'OH !
Mr. Hundley needs a swift kick to the caboose. At 60 years of age, he should certainly know better. I'm thrilled to hear that his employer is taking this very seriously and making a firm stand against this type of treatment of this family. Good for them!! Looks like they are doing so more so than even the police did. I'd love to hear WHY they didn't arrest him for assault under the "Hate Crime" definition. He's going to be hard-pressed to explain his actions in a court of law and win. He deserves whatever he gets, IMO.
Is the n word banned in rap nowadays or just for whitey
Oh my goodness.I do admit that crying babies on a plane is annoying but it really takes a mentally effed up person with anger issues to slap a baby! I'm sure the change in cabin pressure is painful when the plane is descending.What a wretched human being.
Wow, is he ever going to be broke after he pays out the civil judgment.
@alohan This will give him time to hide his money
@alohan I hope so!!
"...slapped the boy in his face...told her to 'shut that ('N word') baby up',...not taken into custody and it is unclear when the case will go to court."
Phones must be ringing off the hook in the Sharpton/Jackson camp. More divisiveness in 3...2...1...?
If anything, it'll take the steam out of..."Why is it, when blacks assault whites it isn't considered a hate crime, yet when whites assault blacks it's considered a hate crime?"
The fact that a 60-year-old president of a company would even shout a racial slur in front of everyone and not be taken into custody makes me think this event could possibly be staged to further drive a wedge between the masses.
Problem, Reaction, Solution...?
str1ngb3nd3r....It all started with the strawberries capt. queeg, the strawberries I tell ya !
I'm sure the witnesses were all in on the conspiracy.
Unitech describes itself as one of the largest manufacturers of composite products for aerospace, transportation, military, commercial and industrial applications in the Pacific Northwest.Â
...a male passenger next to her in Row 28, Seat A, later identified as president of Unitech, Joe Rickey Hundley  http://www.ajc.com/news/news/company-suspends-exec-accused-of-slapping-child-on/nWQ24/
I just find it odd that the president of what sounds like a multi-million/billion(?) dollar company would be riding coach. Why not first class or a private jet?@knottriel Penalty for simple assault is $1,000...pocket change for Hundley. Â
Incidentally, Trayvon Martin was killed on the night of the NBA All-Star game and a racial maelstrom developed weeks later. Tonight was the annual NBA All-Star game and again there's a racial incident making the headlines. The timing is almost uncanny.
Hundley is going to pay his fine and probably will not serve any jail time; and hopefully, the black community will be able to accept that.Â
@str1ngb3nd3r In 2002 I sat next to the founder of EarthLink (Sky Dayton) on a Southwest flight.  From what I found shortly afterward he was worth a few hundred million at the time.  Sometimes rich people apparently live like the rest of us.
At least Sky didn't seem like the type to smack up a baby midflight.
str1ngb3nd3r...not only did it include strawberries but I heard the airline switched his first class ticket with a coach ticket that a black woman got ...
@TreeWizard  lol
rofl
@str1ngb3nd3r This might be his hobby.
@str1ngb3nd3r Sense of entitlement for someone that lives in a upper class world of people that probably kiss his hiney all the time and he forgets that his poop stinks like the rest of us. He lost it in the worst of ways and the worst of his attitude popped out his mouth. Â
I think he should have been charged with a crime, though. That was an assault, period. You don't hit a child like that. If that parent had slapped that 2 year old like that, she probably would have had CPS in her face once the plane landed for child abuse.Â
What the .... is wrong with this guy?