PASTOR JOEL OSTEEN'S WIFE SUED FOR ASSAULT BY FLIGHT ATTENDANTA jury was selected on Wednesday for a suit against pastor Joel Osteen's wife Victoria, who is accused by a flight attendant of assault after finding a stain on her first-class seat.
Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown claims Victoria pushed her against a bathroom door and elbowed her left breast after getting angry about a stain on her seat on a 2005 flight from Houston, Texas to Vail, Colorado.
Victoria was fined $3,000 by the FAA for the incident, which delayed the flight over 2 hours.
Brown says flight attendants had to remove Victoria and her family from the plane; Victoria says they left voluntarily.
Joel – a best-selling author whose sermons to an audience of 42,000 people of the Lakewood Church in Houston are broadcast internationally – joined his wife in court on Wednesday.
See photos of celebrities getting religious.
Victoria's attorney, Rusty Hardin, told reporters it's a "very silly case" based on a "minor incident."
Brown is seeking an apology and 10 percent of Victoria's net worth plus the cost of her counseling. She claims her faith was affected and she suffers from anxiety and hemorrhoids because of the incident.
As potential jurors expressed admiration for the Osteens, Brown's lawyer, Reginald McKamie, said he hopes "celebrity status doesn't take precedence" at the trial. Usmagazine |
