More details have emerged in the case of a JetBlue pilot who was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport moments before he was about to fly to Paris.
Jeremy Gudorf, 33, of Ohio was detained on board the plane at around 8:40pm on Thursday after federal authorities discovered he had a pending warrant for second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, NBC Boston reported.
Massachusetts State Police was the arresting agency and were tipped off by US Customs and Border Protection.
‘In conducting their standard review of the manifest of a Boston-to-Paris flight, [Customs and Border Protection] identified an active North Carolina warrant lodged against a member of the flight crew who was detained,’ the State Police said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
Gudorf was arraigned Friday in East Boston District Court, where prosecutors revealed the sexual exploitation charge originated in North Carolina. Since he was arrested for the crime elsewhere, he was also charged as fugitive from justice in Massachusetts.
Prosecutors asked the judge to hold Gudorf without bail and to order him to surrender his passport, WCVB reported.
‘He is a commercial pilot, the warrant is out of North Carolina, and he resides in Ohio. So for those reasons, we ask he be held without bail and surrender his passport,’ prosecutor Kyle Neyman said.
Tanvi Verma, his defense attorney, said Gudorf has ‘the financial capacity to rent a car and drive to North Carolina’ and ‘has assured me he will do that.’
Jeremy Gudorf, 33, was arrested at Logan Airport in Boston on Thursday evening after a warrant for his arrest from North Carolina was discovered. He has been charged with second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor
Tanvi Verma, his defense attorney, said Gudorf has no past criminal record and understands the seriousness of the charges against him
Following his arrest, JetBlue placed Gurdorf ‘on indefinite leave as law enforcement proceeds with the matter’
‘Frankly, there is no running away from this case, judge. He’s perfectly aware of that,’ Verma said. ‘These are serious charges. The news is here. He’s not going to be able to just run away from this.’
Verma added that her client has no prior criminal history.
The judge set his bail at $10,000 with the condition that he appears in North Carolina to clear the warrant by Tuesday, though no further details were provided in court.
His next court date in Massachusetts is scheduled for March 19 but the judge agreed to waive it if he shows up in North Carolina as ordered.
The sexual exploitation charge came out of Huntersville, a suburb just north of the city of Charlotte.
The Huntersville Police Department said they received a tip about Gurdorf in October from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
‘Following an extensive investigation, a search warrant was obtained for Google, Inc., leading to the identification of the source of the reported images,’ the department said in a statement.
‘Late last year, Google complied with the warrant and provided the necessary records to law enforcement,’ the statement continued. ‘At the time the crime was committed, records indicate he resided in Huntersville, NC. However, during the investigation, and before he was identified as a suspect, he relocated out of state.’
In a statement to DailyMail.com, JetBlue revealed they were aware of Gurdorf’s arrest and that he ‘has been placed on indefinite leave as law enforcement proceeds with the matter.’