Attorney seeks at least $405,000 in Osteen lawsuit

August 14th, 2008 @ 9:53am

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) - An attorney for a Continental Airlines flight attendant wants a jury to award his client at least $405,000 for physical and mental pain suffered in an alleged attack by the wife of mega church pastor Joel Osteen.
Closing arguments in the civil trial were Thursday morning. Flight attendant Sharon Brown is suing Victoria Osteen, the co-pastor of Houston's popular Lakewood Church, claiming Victoria Osteen assaulted her before the start of a 2005 flight.
Brown says Victoria Osteen got so angry that a spill on the armrest of her first-class seat was not quickly cleaned up that she threw Brown against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast.
Both Victoria Osteen and her husband testified last week that no attack took place.

Hello all BlkAv8tor2003 Checking In!!!

Well if this don't beat all...no pun intended!

I always thought and maybe it's just me...plus a few other people in this country but I was under the impression that the last thing you should do on a play regardless of your social status is mess with a flight attendant!!! Rule #1: Never mess with a server or give them a really hard time if they have to serve your food or drinks! There are tricks flight attendants do (I know from experience not my actions) that can make you wish and wonder what you ate in the last 48 hours and you would be none the wiser. Now I know they won't print the whole story but there are alot of holes in this article and it leaves too much information out to defend or convict Victoria Osteen. I'll try to throw some hypothetical situations and questions out there and you can make your own decision of guilt or innocence.

Spill on the armrest of the seat? Was it spilled by this flight attendant?

Ok, if the flight attendant noticed the spill after it was brought to her attention by the passenger then the flight attendant should have cleaned it up as long as it was not during the taxiing of the aircraft. (Taxiing is considered by the FAA as a hazard and flight attendants are not supposed to do anything that is not safety related during this time) That being said most flight attendants are pretty savvy and she could done a walk through with a napkin or towel, wiped it up and it would have been done. Sounds like savvy was not on the agenda here...still missing some key info to make this a solid reason for this situation.

Did the flight attendant ignore the spill and go on about serving the rest of the passengers in first class?

If they were in flight and this is during the service, did the passenger let the flight attendant know there was a spill? If she did then the flight attendant should have went to her galley and returned quickly to clean up the spill plain and simple. It is possible that the spill was small and the flight attendant looked at it and thought it was minimal and went on serving other customers and forgot about the spill or she could of ignored it.

How did the passenger get the chance to "throw" the flight attendant against the bathroom door?

Now how does a passenger get the chance to throw a flight attendant into the bathroom door? Are you for real!!! Ok, first we should know what type of aircraft they were on because of the sheer size or lack there of would give the passenger the ability to throw the crew member around. If it was a narrow body aircraft I think throw is a bit strong of a word for court purposes but if it was a wide body then there is room for someone to get a hold of somebody and potentially throw them across the galley. However on a wide body aircraft there are 2 flight attendants in the first class area working so how did this passenger get the chance to do this and if there was another flight attendant there what was he/she doing when this was going down? maybe this was a sucker toss and the passenger just walked up and made the action and then started telling the flight attendant about herself...who knows!!!

Seatbelt sign on or off?

If the seatbelt sign is on what is the passenger doing out of her seat and does she realize that she can be held liable plus she is interfering with a crews members duties and that includes serving as well as the standard safety related items. This information would be nice to know because I'm sure it will come up in the deposition or in the hearing of the fact of the case. If it was off then I can see why the passenger was up and that's self explanatory. Again we need this bit of info to make a better decision.

What were the other passengers doing once this happened?

Once the altercation started especially after 9/11 what were the other passengers doing who were in first class? I know if I'm on a plane and passenger is acting stupid by messing with a crew member I'm at least going to pay attention to the situation and then when it gets physical then I'm going to get up and help break things up. Then again that's just me!

Was there a verbal altercation first then the physical action happened?

If the words are getting thrown around and voices are getting loud, that has to get every ones attention in first class at least. Is the pastor aware of this yelling going on considering if his wife is not sitting next to him, what's going on....is he even remotely curious? Maybe he is just reading his bible and preparing his next sermon I guess!

Where was the pastor while all this is going on?

Pastors are supposed to promote non violent actions and keep the peace. Mrs' Osteen is an associate or co-pastor so she should know better but it looks like being a pastor and the First Lady of the Church she forgot all about that when she got upset. Her husband said there was no altercation but it sounds like something happened! What was he doing during this time and where was he? If nothing happened then he should have come out and said "nothing happened, what is everyone talking about?" Well we all know this didn't get said, so something happened and he didn't do anything to calm this situation. Isn't this one of the many things that pastors do is to defuse a situation or is that just in the "hood" and on TV and once you have a very large congregation, cars, homes and bling you don't have to do this anymore? This must be beneath these 2 pastors.

Why didn't the pastor stop his wife from leaving her seat or calm her down?

What did the pastor gain by letting his wife go up to the galley because of the spill? I don't understand this one because if she was sitting there complaining to him about the spill why didn't they (the pastors) wait for the lead flight attendant to make a complaint about it if it was such a serious matter that needed immediate attention. This is clearly not the actions of a pastor because Mrs. Osteen showed no restraint or any regard for the position that she holds and probably preaches about.

Did the flight attendant apologize about the spill to Mrs. Osteen once it was noticed?

Now I could see the flight attendant not taking this one serious and or not caring 2 licks about some woman sitting in first class with a few drops of water on the arm rest. This can be a lazy flight attendant that doesn't care, burned out or completely. This is why I say don't bring home to work, turn on your 24hr smile because that is your job and if you don't like it quit!!! All Ms. Brown had to do was apologize, wipe things up as best as possible and keep on going. Apologize, was probably the one thing that should have been done but this sounds like the apology part was not on her agenda.
Everyone should have common sense and be repectful of others but as we all know "sense ain't common" so we should expect no less from either one of these women.

Did Ms. Osteen listen to the safety demonstration announcements at the very beginning of the flight?

The safet demo is there to help you in case there is a problem on board the aircraft. If you don't watch it and here the key points of the demo you may miss something! Ms. Osteen usually and since your sitting in first class you should be able to see who is in charge of the cabin crew. (your not that busy!) Plus certain things are said to keep these types of situations from happening. Observe your surroundings and who is around you that's part of the demo and you should know who your co-travelers are in case something does happen.

Was it necessary for the flight deck crew (pilots) either the captain or the first officer to come out of the cockpit to resolve the situation?

If either pilot has to come out of the cockpit to resolve the situation that is considered a safety of flight issue and nowadays you probably won't see them come out to help in any altercation.


Was Ms. Osteen arrested after the flight landed for interfering with crew members or jeopardizing the safety of the passengers?

Usually if you do anything to a crewmember in flight the local police are dispatched to meet the airplane upon arrival and the person in question is detained. If a call of any type is made from the pilots on the plane indicating there is a problem that is an automatic trigger for the local authorities to be dispatched. I'm sure Ms. Osteen got detained for a bit if nothing else. If that were you or me we would have been detained and unofficially arrested till the police can sort things out!

These are just few extra things for you to converse over or chat about that I picked off the top of my head. I'll see if I can get the whole story or at least some better details than what the newspaper or news agencies are reporting.

Finally, remember these few things as you fly around the USA and hopefully the world.

Don't piss off the flight crew no matter how dumb you think they are and don't be the dumb traveler that say's "I could have your job!" If you could have their job you would and don't let the less than glitz and glamor fool you about flight attendant because they train very hard and long for to do what they do and the pay is not what it use to be.

American travelers think it's their right to fly and act any kind of way and that is not the case. Whether you pay to fly or your company does it's a privileged and if you don't do things at home why would you climb into a skinny, silver, pressurized tube flying at 550 mph think it's ok to do it in that environment. I was a flight attendant in the past and trust me I know and have the stories to tell!!!

Have Good Flight And Be Safe!!!

BlkAv8tor2003