Victoria Osteen Trial – To the Jury

Reading the news reports makes me believe this one is going to go Victoria Osteen’s way.

Closing statements are made today.

An attorney for a Continental Airlines flight attendant asked a jury Thursday to award his client at least $405,000 for physical and mental pain suffered in an alleged attack by the wife of megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.

Not reported here previously:

Claudia Hall, a former Continental flight attendant, testified by video deposition she was falsely accused by Brown of hitting and pushing her into the bathroom wall of a plane in November 1995.

That’s probably the most damaging piece to Brown’s case, at least, I rank it higher than 3 passengers seeing no altercation.

It will be interesting to see what the jury does once they finally get the case.

Pondering Pastor

Victoria Osteen Trial – Day 4

The attorney for Ms. Brown rested their case today.  That meant that Ms. Osteen’s attorney took over.

Today’s testimony featured three first-class passengers.

“There wasn’t anything that occurred that she could be suing over,” said Laura Knoppe, who was sitting in the first row of first-class seats, closest to where Brown said the attack took place.  She said she never heard Osteen yelling or screaming.

Another passenger, Barbara Shedden, who had been called by Brown’s attorney, described the interaction between Brown and Victoria Osteen as “just a power of the wills. It was very authoritative on both parts.”  Shedden said Victoria Osteen was out of line by standing in the aisle while she waited for the spill to be cleaned up, but testified she doubted an attack took place.

A third passenger, James Steele, said he never heard any yelling or sounds of a physical altercation.

I’m hopeful this gets sent to the jury soon.

Pondering Pastor

Victoria Osteen Trial – Day 3

Many commenters to this Blog are very critical of Sharon Brown’s lawsuit against Victoria Osteen.  Some believe she is a “gold-digger”, is avoiding doing her job, and is simply looking to take down a popular person.  I’ve suggested that when someone is treated as an “inferior” and with disrespect, there is often a desire to assert one’s value.  That’s what I believe this lawsuit is about.  In court today, Ms. Brown described the incident which prompted the lawsuit.

“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 Victoria Osteen threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast. Brown said even after that, she remained courteous and tried to help the passenger.  “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.”

And then,

“I want her to admit she did something (wrong). I think people need to be held accountable for their actions,” Brown told jurors.

In previous testimony, Ms. Osteen and Mr. Osteen denied any wrongdoing, any assault, or any real altercation.

The jury was shown a video deposition of the captain of the airplane.

The captain of the plane, Bill Burnett, said he saw Brown and another flight attendant standing shoulder to shoulder at the cockpit door with their backs toward him.  “In 23 years I’ve never seen that happen,”.

Certainly, this was a significant part of the $3000 fine levied by the FAA against Ms. Osteen.

“She came up to me and she called me an angel,” Brown said. “She gave me this look up and down and said, ‘I guess you want me to apologize, but it won’t be sincere.'”

Ms. Brown also said that Mr. Osteen apologized for his wife’s behavior.

I really believe that had Victoria Osteen backed off, apologized, and treated Ms. Brown with respect, this would have never seen the light of day in court.  Undoubtedly, many of the readers of this blog disagree.

Pondering Pastor