Actress Selma Blair has spoken out for the first time since being charged with assault after a mid-air incident, saying she is “so sorry”.<\/p>\n
Blair pleaded not guilty to state charges over allegations she kicked a nurse and a police officer following an incident involving crew members on a flight from Los Angeles to New York.<\/p>\n
At the time, her representatives said her alleged behaviour had been brought on by a severe medical emergency.<\/p>\n
In a video posted to Instagram, Blair said: “I know I’ve been quiet for a couple weeks since October 11. And you deserve to hear from me directly, and I’m sorry that it’s taken this long.<\/p>\n
“There is a legal matter going on, and my lawyers have asked me to not say anything about that day, and I’m listening to them.”<\/p>\n
The Legally Blonde actress said that she took the matter “very seriously” and the “very simple and the truest thing I know about myself is that not one day ever have I intended to hurt or frighten anyone”.<\/p>\n
“And so to the people that I disappointed, that I hurt, I frightened, that I alarmed, I am so sorry,” she said, adding that she appreciated everyone who had reached out to her in support since the incidents.<\/p>\n
Blair then assured fans that her service dog Scout, who accompanied her on the flight, was doing well.<\/p>\n
She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018 and got the Labrador as a service dog five years ago.<\/p>\n
The actress concluded: “So, right now I’m going to be taking care of my health. And my son. And thinking of you all with my gratitude and love.”<\/p>\n
Blair, 54, was detained by police when the Delta flight landed in New York and was taken to hospital for evaluation.<\/p>\n
A police officer taking her to Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre alleged in charging documents that while securing Blair to a stretcher, the actress pulled one of her legs from the straps and kicked her repeatedly around the face, neck and chest, causing serious pain and substantial swelling.<\/p>\n
Later, a nurse moving Blair said the actress kicked her in the chest.<\/p>\n
She was arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault late the following day at a court in Queens, where a judge set her bail at $20,000 cash or $60,000 bond and set the next hearing for January.<\/p>\n
Her lawyer Shawn Barnes told the judge that her actions were not intentional.<\/p>\n
He said the actor missed several doses of “a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms,” according to the New York Daily News and New York Post.<\/p>\n
Mr Barnes said she boarded the flight in Los Angeles amid a heavy workload and hit her head during the flight.<\/p>\n
He said these factors, along with the altitude, led to “a state of severe confusion and disorientation”.<\/p>\n
A later statement issued by Blair’s representatives said public reporting of the incident had been “built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline”.<\/p>\n
It read: “What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle.<\/p>\n
“She still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily. Selma also has pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her.”<\/p>\n
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