Woman guilty after refusing TSA patdown
Second case of its kind in Travis County
- John Bumgardner
ABIA ticket counter (Kate Weidaw/KXAN)
AUSTIN (KXAN) - A woman who refused a full body patdown from TSA agents at Austin-Berstrom International Airport in December has been found guilty.
Claire Hirschkind was being screened in the security area of ABIA when a TSA agent asked her permission for a full-body patdown.
According to her attorney, Sam Bassett, Hirschkind consented to the patdown but said she did not want screeners to touch her breasts or crotch area.
Bassett said the central argument in his clients case was determining If the order given by the TSA agent was lawful.
A TSA agent who testified in Thursdays court hearing said Hirschkind did not agree and refused to any kind of patdown.
Airport police and the TSA agent testified Hirschkind was asked to leave the area and she refused. Bassett said his client did agree to a llmited patdown.
Hirschkind refused to leave the area and was placed under arrest for the December 22, 2010 incident around 6:30 a.m.
A judge found Hirschkind guilty for “knowingly failing to obey a lawful order from airport security.”
Hirschkind was also ordered to pay a $50 fine during Thursday’s ruling.
According to the city of Austin prosecutor only one other case of this kind has been tried in Travis County. That case involved a man who claimed to be a citizen of the Republic of Texas. The man represented himself in that case.
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