Judge Rules Fairfield Man Must Register as Sex Offender for Flight Incident

A Superior Court judge ruled that a Fairfield man must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement the man made after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a female passenger on a flight from Las Vegas to New York, according to the Connecticut Post.

The Post reports that John Callanan, of Lilalyn Drive in Fairfield, filed a lawsuit against the state Commissioner of Public Safety, claiming that his rights were being violated by having to register as a sex offender.

Callanan, who pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact without permission for a 2006 incident in which he stuck his hands between the legs of a female passenger who was sitting next to him and he didn’t know, said in his lawsuit that he was being treated for a psychiatric condition known as frotteurism and that led to his criminal offense, according to the Post. Frotteurism is a disorder in which a person derives sexual pleasure or gratification from rubbing, especially the genitals, against another person, usually in a crowd.

However, Judge Richard Gilardi threw out the lawsuit on Wednesday, saying that Callanan waived his right to challenge the sex offender registration as part of his plea agreement and therefore “cannot now raise constitutional claims where he previously agreed to not challenge his conviction or sentence at all,” according to the Post.

Read the full story at the Connecticut Post here.