No Felony Charges in TSA Agent Groping Case

PHOENIX – Prosecutors said Tuesday that they won't file felony charges against a Colorado woman who is accused of groping a female Transportation Security Administration agent at Phoenix's airport.

Jerry Cobb, a spokesman for the Maricopa County attorney's office, said county prosecutors concluded the facts of the case don't rise to the level of a felony.

The case against Yukari Miyamae, of Longmont, Colo., now goes to Phoenix's city prosecutor's office, which handles all misdemeanors in the city.

That office said it hasn't received the case and hasn't decided whether to charge Miyamae.

Police said Miyamae, 61, grabbed a breast of an unidentified agent Thursday after the TSA said she refused to go through passenger screening. She was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse and released Friday on her own recognizance.

Miyamae hasn't returned calls this week from The Associated Press.

Cobb said the case against Miyamae didn't contain a sexual motivation element, which is required to prove the sexual abuse charge that police had recommended.

The TSA agent also didn't meet the qualifications of a law enforcement officer, which would have triggered a charge of assaulting a police officer, Cobb said.

The TSA issued a written statement Tuesday saying that it won't tolerate assaults on its employees.