American Airlines has replaced the legal team that was defending the company in a lawsuit revolving around the alleged filming of a 9-year-old girl in an aircraft bathroom after attorneys with that firm blamed the victim in a court filing.
Plaintiff’s attorneys tell the Dallas Morning News they were notified of the change in counsel for the carrier on Friday. The switch comes after American rescinded a filing from the outside law firm saying the injuries caused to the young victim were caused by the girl’s “own fault and negligence, were proximately caused by (her) use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”
American, last Thursday, said its lawyers had “made an error in this filing” and the airline did not believe the child was at fault.
American confirmed the change in counsel to Fortune but declined to elaborate on the decision.
A former flight attendant for the carrier has been accused of taping his iPhone to the toilet seat and filming young girls as they used the lavatory. The case in question occurred during a flight last year.
That flight attendant, Estes Carter Thompson III, was arrested in January and charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor. He has pleaded not guilty, but has not worked for the airline since his arrest.
“With the benefit of this new legal representation, we hope that American Airlines will now take a fresh look at the case and finally take some measure of responsibility for what happened to our client,” Paul Llewellyn, an attorney for the family of the 9-year-old girl, told the Morning News.
