(Headline USA) Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s niece was formally charged this week with two misdemeanors and a felony after she went on a drunken rampage on a plane last year.
Shannon Christie Epstein, 26, has been slapped with two counts of disturbing the peace and felony resisting police with violence by prosecutors in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, according to the Times-Picayune.
The charges stemmed from an incident during Thanksgiving of last year on a Spirit Airlines plane bound for New Jersey.
According to police, the plane was on the tarmac at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport when Epstein accused a nearby family that she “believed was Latino” of smuggling cocaine.
When sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, Epstein became “extremely combative,” police said. She then began attacking the officers, injuring six deputies, “biting one and kicking another in the groin.”
The Spirit crew was forced to turn the plane around and head back to the gate, but Epstein refused to leave.
“She repeatedly stated that they would lose their jobs or be arrested because of her familial relationships,” police said.
Epstein also allegedly cited her uncle’s relationship with former President Donald Trump several times.
“I know Donald Trump,” she allegedly told the officers. “You will lose your job over this s***.”
Officers ultimately had to strap Epstein to a wheelchair and roll her away from the gate.
“She did willfully and unlawfully disturb the peace by appearing in an intoxicated condition in such a manner as would foreseeably disturb and alarm the public,” prosecutors alleged in court filings.
The filings also revealed Epstein waived her right to appear at several hearings over the past year before the charges were officially filed on Monday. If she is convicted, Epstein faces up to three years in prison.
Chris Christie’s relationship with Trump has been strained, to say the least, as the two are locked in a contentious presidential primary campaign where Christie has regularly taken shots at the former president and current GOP frontrunner.
