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Aug 12, 2008 1:43 pm US/Central
Flight Attendant Testifies Against Osteen's Wife
HOUSTON (AP) ―
A flight attendant suing the wife of megachurch evangelist Joel Osteen told a jury on Tuesday that Victoria Osteen should be held accountable for attacking her on a plane without provocation.
But the attorney for Victoria Osteen questioned the flight attendant's perception that an assault ever took place.
Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown testified that Victoria Osteen approached her upset and angry before the start of a 2005 flight from Houston to Vail, Colo.
In her lawsuit, Brown accuses Victoria Osteen of verbally and physically abusing her and another flight attendant when a spill on the arm rest of the woman's first-class seat was not quickly cleaned up.
"I asked her to calm down. When she came to me she was very upset. She was shaking (her sunglasses) in my face," Brown testified. "I asked her, 'What could I do for you?' I did everything I thought I could do in that situation."
Brown testified that she remained courteous and tried to help Victoria Osteen even as she became more upset when the co-pastor of Houston's popular Lakewood Church threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast.
"I looked in her eyes and realized she was looking at the cockpit. I positioned myself in front of the cockpit," Brown said. "I still was trying to understand what was going on because it happened so quick. My main concern was I wasn't going to let this lady in the cockpit."
Bill Burnett, the captain of the plane, recalled seeing Brown and another flight attendant standing shoulder to shoulder with their backs toward him, at the cockpit door.
"In 23 years I've never seen that happen," he testified in a videotaped deposition shown to jurors.
Brown is suing Victoria Osteen for the alleged attack and wants an apology and punitive damages amounting to 10 percent of Victoria Osteen's net worth as part of her lawsuit.
"I want her to admit she did something (wrong). I think people need to be held accountable for their actions," Brown told jurors.
Both Victoria Osteen and Joel Osteen, who was on the same flight, testified last week that no attack took place.
The couple are co-pastors of Houston's Lakewood Church, which draws about 42,000 people each week for services. Joel Osteen's weekly television address is broadcast in the U.S. and internationally and his books are sold around the globe.
Victoria Osteen's attorney, Rusty Hardin, questioned how Brown could know what his client was thinking, referencing Brown's earlier statement about looking into Victoria Osteen's eyes and knowing she was going to go into the cockpit.
"Can you look into my eyes and tell me where I am going to go?" Hardin said as people in the courtroom laughed.
Hardin also questioned Brown about her claim that Victoria Osteen tried to provoke the flight attendant into hitting her after the alleged attack by the manner in which she offered an apology, allegedly getting into Brown's personal space and looking at her in a very threatening manner.
"She called me angel," Brown said.
"That was threatening?" Hardin asked.
"Yes, the way she said it," Brown said.
Hardin suggested Brown's perception of what happened is flawed.
"Ms. Brown, is it possible you have a history of perceiving things entirely different than they really happened?" Hardin asked.
"I have no comment," Brown responded.
Before Brown testified on Tuesday, her attorney, Reginald McKamie, briefly recalled Joel Osteen to the witness stand and asked him if his family received any special treatment during check-in and at security from a church volunteer who works for Continental Airlines.
Joel Osteen said he and his family stood in line like everyone else and that the Continental employee was just "being a friend there to meet me."
Brown testified her breasts started to burn after Victoria Osteen hit her. Several months earlier Brown had receive breast implants after fibroids -- benign tumors -- were removed from her chest. But tests later showed everything was normal, Brown said.
"No doctor has ever found any physical injury to you as a result of this encounter?" Hardin asked.
"Yes," Brown said.
Brown testified she suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the incident.
Brown also said that her faith has been affected, admitting to jurors that in a deposition she had called Joel Osteen the devil and Lakewood Church a cult.
The Federal Aviation Administration fined Victoria Osteen $3,000 for interfering with a crew member.
The Osteens said they did not want to pay the fine but thought it would be the best way to put the incident behind them even though they felt they did nothing wrong.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
