US actress Selma Blair has been charged with two additional assault counts over allegedly kicking an officer and a nurse after being removed from a flight.
Blair was arrested late Sunday in New York after she allegedly attacked flight attendants on a Delta plane travelling from Los Angeles to New York. The FBI issued her a federal summons accusing her of assault on board.
While appearing in court over the additional charges, the Legally Blonde star’s attorney asked the judge to consider the actress’s “body of work”, and called Blair the “gold standard.” The judge said she should not “get special treatment”.
Blair has pleaded not guilty. She has since been released on bail.
She was taken to hospital after the incident on the flight. Her representatives have told the BBC that she had “experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct”.
As the flight landed in New York on Sunday evening, airport officials responded to a call about “a physically abusive passenger” on the flight. Two flight attendants were hurt and one was taken to hospital, the New York Port Authority said.
Audio recorded on air traffic control details a pilot asking for medical help, describing “a bloody nose” and “some bite marks”, according to CBS News, BBC’s US News partner.
Blair, 54, who also starred in Cruel Intentions and Hellboy, was arrested and taken to hospital. She was issued a federal summons for a charge of assault within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the US.
The two additional charges of assault, filed in state court, came after she was taken off the plane.
One of the alleged assaults happened when she was being transported in an ambulance, where she allegedly kicked a police officer. Once at hospital, prosecutors allege that she also assaulted a nurse. At her arraignment in Queens, Blair’s attorney Shawn Barnes asked the judge for leniency. He said that “violence” is “not who she is” and asked for the judge to consider her body of work.
The actress is somebody that people she look up to, he said, referring to her as “the gold standard”.
The judge denied his request and said she “should not get special treatment…because she is a celebrity”.
The judge set her bail at $20,000 cash or $60,000 bond with the next hearing scheduled for 19 January. It is unclear when a date will be set for the federal case against her, which concerns the allegations of assault aboard the aircraft.
By BBC News
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