Actor Selma Blair pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of second-degree assault in New York, after police say a cross-country Delta flight ended with two flight attendants hurt, and Blair kicking a police officer and a hospital nurse. Her lawyer told the judge she was having a medical emergency.
Blair, 54, was released on $20,000 bail. If she’s convicted on the top count, she faces two to seven years, a prosecutor said, according to NBC News. She’s due back in court Jan. 19.
What happened on Selma Blair’s Delta flight?
Port Authority police and the FBI met Delta Flight 938 from Los Angeles at a gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport late Sunday night after a report of a physically abusive passenger. Two flight attendants said they were hurt, and one went to a hospital. A law enforcement official told CNN that one was bitten and the other was cut, and that officers used plastic restraints to subdue Blair.
Before landing, the pilots told air traffic control that one person had a bloody nose and another had bite marks, ABC News reported. A later transmission, recorded by the app ATC.com, said the passenger may have “bashed her head on the bulkhead.” Delta said it “has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior.”
What is Selma Blair charged with?
The two state charges don’t cover anything that happened on the plane, a prosecutor said in court. They’re about what came after. According to the criminal complaint, Blair freed her leg from the straps of a stretcher while being taken to an ambulance around 11:50 p.m. and kicked Port Authority Officer Maria Suarez “repeatedly about the face, neck and chest.” Around 2 a.m. Monday, a nurse at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center said Blair kicked her in the chest. The judge issued an order of protection for the nurse.
Alleged assaults in the air fall under federal law. Blair was also handed a federal violation notice for assault on an aircraft, a source told ABC News. The FBI’s New York office said it doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations.
What does Selma Blair’s lawyer say happened?
“We do not believe, your honor, that this is an intentional assault,” attorney Shawn Barnes told the judge. He said Blair boarded after long hours on set, had missed several doses of her medication, and fell and hit her head on the plane. Blair was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, and Barnes said she has also been diagnosed with Parkinsonism, a group of symptoms that includes tremors and stiffness.
“Selma experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct,” her representative said in a statement. “Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention and is currently in stable condition.” It isn’t her first incident on a plane: in 2016 she was taken off a flight from Cancun on a stretcher, and later said mixing alcohol with medication had caused her “to black out,” CNN reported.
The BeezLoop Take
Two things can be true here. Flight attendants, a police officer and a nurse got hurt doing their jobs, and they deserve the same protection they’d get if the passenger were anyone else. And a person in a real neurological crisis isn’t the same as a drunk passenger picking a fight.
The court is the right place to sort out which one this was, with medical records, not press statements. Blair has spent years being honest in public about living with MS, and she’s earned the benefit of a fair hearing. She hasn’t earned a pass, and her lawyer isn’t asking for one.
The open question: did anyone on that plane recognize a medical emergency in time to treat it as one?
Also on BeezLoop: passengers duct-taped an unruly man to his seat after a racist outburst.
Sources: CNN · NBC News · ABC News · Associated Press via NPR · NBC News (video)
