The federal trial for Carmen Lechin—a former beauty queen whose alleged assault on a flight attendant got her flight turned right around in 2013—has everything you need for a first-class drama: namely, an international flight, a drunken fight and a scorned almost-ex-husband.
Lechin, a former Miss Venezuela who competed in the Miss Universe pageant, was taken into custody by FBI agents after a fight over a pillow turned into an alleged drunken air assault on a Borgota-bound international flight. Via the Houston Chronicle:
In opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Winter said Lechin became increasingly agitated after being denied a pillow, which United no longer offers to passengers, and after several confrontations with her husband.
She finally received a written warning that said: “Your behavior is violating federal law” – which she allegedly threw at [the flight attendant.]
Prosecutors say an off-duty police officer was forced to handcuff her with zip ties after Lechin began kicking and screaming, and the pilots returned the plane to Houston citing safety concerns. But Lechin says her husband, with whom she is currently embroiled in a bitter divorce, was the one at fault.
The flight attendant overreacted to Dr. Lechin’s claims that his wife was “invading his space,” Carmen Lechin’s lawyer, Houston attorney F. Andino Reynal, told jurors.
“My client, who is in the midst of a very emotional situation with her husband, is getting scared and worried because this man keeps calling the flight attendant,” he said.
“We’re going to prove to you that [the flight attendant] did not follow regulations,” Reynal said, “that he became hysterical, that he overreacted and that he displayed poor judgment.”
According to the Chronicle, a jury of Lechin’s peers will decide her fate this week.
Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.