A representative for Selma Blair came to her defense Friday, just days after the actress pleaded not guilty after being arrested on two counts of second-degree assault in connection with a physical incident on a plane.
The “Cruel Intentions” actor is accused of kicking a Port Authority police officer, then a nurse at a hospital, after she was removed from the Delta Air Lines flight for physical abuse around 11:50 p.m. Sunday, according to court documents.
“Since Sunday evening, the public narrative of what happened in Selma aboard a flight to New York has relied almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline,” the rep said in a statement to NBC News. “We can, however, correct the situation on a few points that have already been publicly disseminated.”
The rep doubled down on previous statements from Blair’s team that she “suffered a medical emergency during the flight” and that she “did not intend to harm anyone.”
Blair revealed in 2018 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that attacks healthy cells in the central nervous system, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle. She still has bad days and lives with pain every day,” her rep said, adding that the actress also suffers from “pseudobulbar effect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which directly impacts how a medical episode presents to people who don’t know her.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, pseudobulbar effect “may occur in association with various neurological diseases,” including multiple sclerosis.
“For the same reason, she travels with a service dog that won’t leave her side, and the authorities took her dog away from her,” Blair’s rep said.
The representative added that there was “no attempt to open the aircraft door” during the incident.
Authorities in New York accused Blair of punching a police officer in the face, neck and chest as he strapped the actress to a stretcher to transport her to the hospital, according to a criminal affidavit in the case.
At the hospital, a nurse said Blair kicked her in the chest, according to the document.
In court, Blair’s lawyers said she had missed several doses of medication controlling severe neurological symptoms.
“There was an incident in which Ms. Blair fell and hit her head. These factors, Your Honor, coupled with the altitude, resulted in a state of severe confusion and disorientation,” Shawn Barnes, Blair’s lawyer, said in court this week.
“There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask that the full facts be considered before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion,” the representative said.
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