tonight, unfriendly skies. a passenger forcefully removed from a united airlines flight dragged by aviation police and left bloody. after being chosen at random to give up his seat. eyewitness accounts from inside the plane and what the airline is saying tonight. is it legal to use such extreme force to resolve a seating issue? plus dixie disgrace. >> it is time for me to step down. >> the tale that turned the governor of alabama into a pariah pleading guilty to misusing funds to allegedly cover up an affair with his one-time top adviser 30 years his junior. the secretly recorded conversations tonight.

and what forced him to finally resign today? finally resign today? and finally resign today? and ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ to take advantage of this offer on a volvo s90, visit your local dealer. we're going to start here tonight with a bizarre and disturbing moment caught on

camera aboard a united airlines flight. a man dragged off the plane for refusing to give up the seat he had already paid for. he was left bleeding and his fellow passengers were stunned. were any laws broken here and could this happen to you? [ screaming ] >> reporter: they are the shocking images of a passenger caught in a travel nightmare. a man visibly shaken as he's yanked -- >> come on. >> reporter: and then dragged off a united jet by law enforcement. >> oh, my god, look at what you did to him. >> reporter: all after refusing to give up his seat. tonight chicago aviation security officer put on leave. for many of the passengers and for many of the millions who have seen this clip, the question is how did it get to this point? >> it was surreal. no one expected it to happen like that. >> reporter: it was scheduled to leave chicago sunday evening at 5:40. the destination? louisville, kentucky. it's when the passengers got on

board that the crew started to offer vouchers for a hand full of seats. >> $800 sounded nice. i thought it was unusual nobody was volunteering. i think it was because there was no other flight until 2 p.m. today. >> reporter: united saying they weren't overbooked. they claim the passengers were all on board when crew members approached the gate agents and needed to be in louisville to work on their own flight. four seats would be needed. >> everybody was seated by then, and the fact that they told us we would not leave until four people volunteered, there was just a real sense on the plane that that wasn't right. >> reporter: with no takers, a computer picked four passengers offering them $1,000, the airline says. all complied except this 69-year-old man who said he's a doctor and needed to get home to treat patients? >> two police come in in full gear. they tell him he has to leave the plane. >> reporter: john, the man in the orange shirt was sitting

right in front of the passenger he saw and heard it all, he says. how do you react when the police aren't asking questions. they're just trying to forcibly remove the man? i could not believe what i was seeing or hearing. i was in shock. >> reporter: and so were other passengers. many of them recording as the officers dragged the man down the aisle. >> i have to go home. >> reporter: minutes later the man slipped back onto the jet. >> i have to go home. >> reporter: before he was removed again. the ceo calling it an upsetting event and saying the airline is reaching out to the man to address and resolve this situation. in an internal memo, they were saying he was approached a few more times in order to gain his compliance. each time he refused. the passenger has yet to comment. >> you nighted may have been right legally, but morally it's hard to make a case for the way this man was treated. and people are expressing their outrage. >> look at what you did to him.

>> reporter: yet demanding a paying customer to give up a seat is perfectly legal. >> it's part of a document that nobody looks at called the contract of carriage. it gives the airlines, the pilot, the flight attendant, all sorts of rights to do whatever they want. >> reporter: this is the second case of negative press for united airlines in the last two weeks. late last month two teenagers had to change clothes before boarding a flight from denver to minneapolis. >> we heard the gate agent say these aren't my rules. i just enforce them. >> reporter: airlines have rules for every situation. but sometimes social media doesn't look at the rules. they look at the outcomes. >> to me, it seems like a sexist policy. >> reporter: united says the family was flying under relatives and friends flying for free or at discounted prices. the airline told abc news when taking advantage of this benefit, all employees and pass riders are considered representatives of united. the passengers were not in

compliance with our dress code for company benefit travel. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: leggings aside, this is not the first time we've seen airport security dragging a passenger down a plane aisle. this one went viral. a delta airlines representative said in a statement at the time that the passenger was not complying with boarding and bagging checking procedures and removed by local law enforcement. and not even two weeks after that incident, an unruly passenger was removed from a jet blue flight not by police but by staff at the request of the secret service after reportedly harassing ivanka trump. >> he was upset. he walked on as soon as he saw her, he started shaking. >> reporter: the secret service said they made the decision to remove the passenger from the aircraft. jet blue wrote in a statement the decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly and they worked to

reaccommodate the party on the next available flight. people behaving badly on planes is not a new phenomenon. between 2007 and 2015 there were nearly 50,000 unruly incidents. 40% of airlines report they diverted a flight last year because of an unruly passenger. example, this freakout at 40,000 feet. >> all of a sudden this guy who was sleeping just woke up out of nowhere and started flipping out. >> reporter: this passenger punching and kicking as flight attendants struggled to restrain him. >> everyone is freaking out. i was a little nervous. i wasn't sure what the guy was trying to do. >> okay. >> reporter: or this guy growing more irate by the moment in a heated exchange. >> i'm 28. i made $4 million a year. what do you do? nothing. shut up. >> yeah, right. i own six houses.

[ screaming ] >> reporter: but other than refusing to leave his seat, there's been no evidence that this man who claims to be a doctor on his way to see patients in louisville, did anything wrong. when you look at this tape, does it look like excessive force to you? >> absolutely. the question is whose fault is it? whose to blame? united calls the police department. the police shows up and drags the guy out. the excessive force here is really from the police. not united. >> look at what you did. >> reporter: what comes next may be a lawsuit? if that passenger files a lawsuit, it's most likely against the police, not the airline. >> it will be against both. the airline has every right to involuntarily deny access to the plane. what makes this different is this wasn't about denying access. this was about yanking someone off. >> reporter: might make that $800 coupon seem like small potatoes. next here, the scandal and alabama, the alleged love affair

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scandal that came to a dramatic culmination in alabama today. the mild mannered 74-year-old governor resigned this afternoon. he was facing impeachment over allegations he used state resources to carry out and conceal an affair with a former aide. >> if we're going to do what we did the other night, we are going to have to start.

>> reporter: this is the voice of the alabama governor bentley caught whispering sweet nothings to a woman that wasn't his wife. >> you know what, when, when i stand behind you, and i put my arms around you, and i put my hands on your breasts and i put my hands in and just. >> reporter: on the other end of the line is one of his long time campaign consultants who is also very married. they'll their alleged affair is no crime, the coverup is. the it's taken the the governor to the big house at least long enough to take this booking photo. police say he illegally used resources to pay his alleged girlfriend and hide the affair in a deal that will help him from serving a long made a couple confessions.

he was fingerprinted and paid bond like a common criminal. and then faced the music that's been going through the hallways of legislature for two years. >> i have decided it is time for me to step down as alabama's governor. >> we know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. robert bentley could not handle the power. >> reporter: the story reads like a bad romance novel. >> listen to me. take your earring off and let me kiss your ear. >> reporter: all that sexy talk was taking from a dermatologist and a former deeken who ran for governor preaching family values. >> i've served my country, state and patience with honesty and integrity. i'll do the same as governor. >> reporter: by his side was his loyal wife of nearly 50 years. >> he was almost a grandfather

figure. >> reporter: bentley was new to politics and decided to hire someone with good experience in the media. rebekah mason. she was married and nearly 30 years his junior. once bentley won the election, her influence on the governor grew. >> eventually she became his top adviser. that caused a lot of concern. she flattered him and flirted with him. >> reporter: all of a sudden he was acting brand new. >> he started dressing better. his wife noticed. she not only noticed the changes in the wardrobe but also the changes in his demeanor. >> reporter: the first lady wasn't alone. people in the office said the governor started acting strangely. >> they would walk into a room where the governor and rebekah mason were together and both the dwroer governor and mason would be start startled. >> reporter: in the spring of 2016 14, governor bentley sent a

text meant for rebecca to his wife. his wife was soon getting ahold of text messages between them where bentley writes things like i'm yours forever and i love you so much, and took it a step further when she left her chchb next to her husband and made sure it was recording while he called his alleged girlfriend. >> i love that too, putting my hands on you. >> she had one of her aides download the recording to a laptop and burn them onto a cd. and the cds became a bit of an obsession for the governor once he discovered he was recorded. >> reporter: he went too far trying to keep his secret, being accused of using his police detail to track down the recording. >> governor bentley has attempted to put together a little montgomery mafia,

intimidating people, harassing people, threatening people. and if you're going to do that, you best be good at it. he's not. it was very juvenile. >> it's become apparent to me that rebekah mason has wielded the influence over the governor and state government that i have never seen in all my years of public service. >> reporter: all of this might have never come out if it weren't for the former top police officer spencer collier who went public last year. he says he was fired for refusing to cover up the governor's alleged affair. >> i explained to the governor it would be a crime if he used state resources to facility a relationship or if he used campaign funds to facility the relationship. >> reporter: the governor denied that he and mason ever got physical. >> i want everyone to know, though, that i have never had a physical affair with mrs. mason. >> reporter: but there was no walking away from what he called

inappropriate remarks. mason resigned in march, 2016. >> i said some inappropriate things, and i know that i did that. and so i'm just apologizing for that to her, and i've apologized to my family and the state of alabama. >> reporter: the mess was grit in the auditor officer. >> an affair among people is not in and of itself a crime. accusations are he used state resources to further the affair with the senior staffer. and to cover it up. >> i just found some obvious signs that things were wrong. 120 days you cannot raise money after the election is over. and i looked and then he'd done that twice. >> this was unbelievable. >> reporter: the complaints led to an investigation that produced this 131 page report released friday by the house judiciary committee.

it accused him of an extensive abuse of power. lawmakers called for his impeachment in his own party. >> everybody wants to make a joke out of it. for us, we're living it. and it's just an absolute embarrassment. my district has suffered for the last two years because my battle with the governor. >> the way you keep politicians straight is watch rim. >> reporter: part of the deal, he has to pay back campaign funds he spent on rebekah mason, agree to never run for office again and serve a year's probation. he walks away with his freedom, but it seems he's lost everything else. >> his wife divorced him in september of 2015. he's lost his children. they no longer talk to him, and now he's lost his office. >> reporter: for "nightline" in montgomery, alabama. next, we've got the skinny on mama june's weight loss. how the star of here comes honey

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finally tonight, mama has a brand new bod. here's deborah roberts. >> reporter: they're self ro claped red necks who launched to stardom reality tv. honey boo boo and her mom, june thompson, better known as mama june. for most of her time in the spotlight, mama june has looked like this c but no longer. >> look at you. >> yes. >> how much did you weigh at your worst? >> 460. >> reporter: after years of being dangerously oh piece, mama june took a drastic step. gastric sleeve surgery, reducing the size of her stomach. all documented on mama june from not to hot. some people would suspect that maybe it was about ratings. >> i was under the surgery

whether there were cameras or not. >> reporter: the weight loss took nearly two years along with diet and exercise. unfamiliar territory. it's the first time you really exercised? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: how hard was that? >> very. i didn't want to do it. >> reporter: add to that, two more painful surgeries to remove her excess skin. compared to her former self, the new june is barely recognizable. when you look at these old pictures of mama june, these are the pictures that the world got to know you. >> that's not me. >> reporter: even with the ups and downs, mama june and her family are doing what they do best, grabbing headlines and ratings. did you ever have any regrets about reality tv? >> if i had anything i regretted, i wouldn't have done it to begin with. >> reporter: deborah roberts in new york. our thanks to deb and our

thanks to you for watching news. thank you for watching and good night.

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