Plane passenger fined for ripping off woman's hijab
A North Carolina man who ripped off a woman's hijab on a Southwest Airlines flight was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
Authorities say 37-year-old Gill Parker Payne told a woman to remove her hijab before he yanked it off her head and said, "take it off! This is America."
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The incident occurred last winter during a Southwest Airlines flight headed to Albuquerque from Chicago. Payne sat a few rows behind the woman.
She said, "he violated me, not just took off my scarf. I felt like he took off my shirt, my pants in front of everybody."
Payne was later convicted and pleaded guilty to obstructing the woman's right to practice her religious beliefs using force.
He was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay the fine by a U.S. District Court.
Payne claimed that he was intoxicated on the plane and said, "I'm embarrassed. I'm 100 percent embarrassed."
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