By David Hanners
St. Paul Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Bob Lee made a name internationally as a safari leader, conservationist and outfitter with a tony boutique in New York, but federal prosecutors have accused him of something less savory: sexually assaulting a paramedic on a medical flight.
The alleged incident occurred in September as Lee, 83, was being flown on his private jet from Show Low, Ariz., to Rochester, Minn., home of the Mayo Clinic.
The charge filed against Lee claims that he grabbed and twisted the breast of a paramedic and that when she demanded he stop, he allegedly replied, “I can do whatever I want. This is my airplane.”
He also allegedly told a nurse aboard his $37 million Gulfstream jet that “she should be wearing a V-neck shirt so that he could slide his hand in her shirt more easily,” according to the charge filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.
The nurse, from Arizona, reported the alleged incident to FBI agents in that state when she returned home.
The man more formally known as Robert M. Lee is accused of one count of assault. Because the incident is alleged to have occurred aboard an airplane flying over the territorial U.S., it is considered a federal crime.
Lee, of Reno, Nev., is scheduled for an arraignment and plea hearing on June 27 before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan in Minneapolis. He was charged in a document known as an “information,” which generally indicates the government and the defense have negotiated a deal in return for a guilty plea.
The U.S. attorney’s office said the maximum penalty for a conviction on the assault charge is six months behind bars.
Lee did not immediately return a call left at his business, Deeside Trading Co. of Sparks, Nev., outside Reno. A receptionist there said she couldn’t talk about the matter, promised to forward a reporter’s number to Lee and hung up.
Described in one publication as “an avid explorer, writer and conservationist,” Lee was the founder of Hunting World, an outfitter specializing in leather goods and bags. He originally began designing safari gear - he claimed to have led expeditions in 17 countries - but then it morphed into a business selling Italian-designed luxury luggage, duffels and handbags.
His company’s catalogs often pictured him in exotic locales. One such photo, found on the blog “Archival Clothing,” showed him posing with Hunting World bags next to a camel with its mouth agape; the caption read, “Mr. Lee enjoys a laugh with his favorite camel at his ibex camp in the High Altai mountains of Mongolia.”
He was also an author. His 1988 book, “China Safari: An American Explorer in the Forbidden Pamirs,” chronicled his trek through China’s Pamir Mountains. When he went, in 1980, he became one of the first Americans in modern times to explore the remote area.
Hunting World was later bought by a Japanese company.
The crime allegedly took place Sept. 21 on a 1,100-mile flight from Show Low, Ariz., to Rochester. Lee was with at least two other people, identified only as a paramedic/respiratory therapist with the initials “M.L.” and a registered nurse with the initials “M.D.”
The complaint claims that Lee was under their care during the flight and that when M.L. assisted him in returning to his seat, the man “reached up with his left hand and grabbed the right breast of M.L. He forcibly and violently grabbed and twisted the nipple of M.L.'s right breast, causing M.L. substantial pain.”
The woman immediately pushed Lee’s hand away and told him, “You do not get to touch me like that. Do not do that again!” the charge said. That’s when Lee allegedly replied that he could do what he wanted on his own jet.
“Shortly thereafter, the defendant reached across the aisle of the airplane and gestured to M.D. with his thumb and forefinger in a pinching motion, stating, ‘That’s what I’m going to do to you,’” the charge claims.
“When M.D. told Robert M. Lee that he was not allowed to touch medical crew in that manner, he responded, ‘On my airplane, I can do whatever I want,’” the charge says. Lee then allegedly told the nurse she should wear V-neck shirts.
Federal prosecutors refused to say how they got involved, and Jeanne Cooney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, wouldn’t say.
But Rochester Police Sgt. John Turk, who is in charge of the city’s police detachment responsible for Rochester International Airport, said the case was not investigated locally because “the nurse who was assaulted didn’t report it until she returned home, back in Arizona. She reported it to the FBI office there, and they were doing the investigation.”
Karl Oestreich, a spokesman for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said officials there “don’t have any information on this patient.”
Federal records show Lee’s company, Deeside Trading, owns the airplane, a twin-engine Gulfstream Aerospace G-1159A.
Copyright 2011 St. Paul Pioneer Press
All Rights Reserved